Unbridled Beast staying hungry for Grissom
Unbridled Beast has turned into a minor monster since being stretched from sprints to routes, and he looks like a major player in the $75,000 Gus Grissom, one of two Indiana-bred two-turn dirt stakes on the Wednesday program at Indiana Grand.
Unbridled Beast, trained, co-owned, and co-bred by Randy Matthews, won two of his first four starts in sprint races but is 2 for 2 since Matthews moved him from one turn to two. The first of those wins came under very favorable circumstances, with Unbridled Beast leading on a slow pace facing a short field in a race rained off turf, but Unbridled Beast jumped 24 Beyer points, to an 84, when he won a two-turn Indiana stallion stakes over the solid horse Cash Logistics, another entrant in the Grissom. Unbridled Beast returns on just two weeks’ rest but should be a fairly fresh horse with just four races during 2020, and his positional pace could serve him well Thursday.
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Listed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite is Operation Stevie, one of the more successful Indiana-breds of the last several seasons and winner of the Grissom in 2018 and 2019. Operation Stevie’s form is solid enough during this, his 8-year-old season, but he clearly has lost a step or two from his career peak. Operation Stevie’s late run used to be most effective in sprints, but these days he is more suited to rallying in two-turn races like the Grissom.
Mystery Unbridled, second in the 2019 Grissom, would have a win chance were he able to slip loose on the lead, which seems unlikely. Uphold drops out of an open allowance race but looks more like trifecta fodder than a true win candidate.
Richmond Stakes
Cirpriano Contreras trains and co-owns Operation Stevie. In the $75,000 Richmond Stakes he sends out Expect Indy, a leading win candidate, for the Gumpster Stable. Seven-year-old Expect Indy also is a two-time defending champion in her Thursday race, but she might have a little more punch left than Operation Stevie. Expect Indy makes her third start of 2020 and stretches out to a route following two sprints. She ran like she had some rust in her comeback start but last out was a much better closing third in the six-furlong Shelby County at Indiana Grand.
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Her primary rival is a familiar foe, Unbridled Class, who Expect Indy trampled in the 2019 Richmond when Unbridled Class was the even-money favorite. Where Expect Indy is a closer and stalker, depending on the pace and the day, Unbridled Class knows only one way to run, from the front, and her chances typically hinge on how much pressure she takes.