{"id":228176,"date":"2025-07-01T02:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228176\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T02:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:45:11","slug":"red-hot-joe-sharp-brings-three-for-indiana-derby-undercard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/228176\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-Hot Joe Sharp Brings Three For Indiana Derby Undercard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red-Hot Joe Sharp Brings Three For Indiana Derby Undercard<\/a> originally appeared on Paulick Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Kentucky-based Joe Sharp didn\u2019t have the absolute hottest stable in the country for the first half of 2025, he\u2019s certainly on a very short list. Fresh off his first Churchill Downs training title \u2014 which came on the heels of his first Fair Grounds training title \u2014 Sharp will try to keep the momentum going when he runs three horses in undercard stakes on Saturday\u2019s Indiana Derby program at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville, Ind.<\/p>\n

Money Supply won last year\u2019s $100,000 Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial on turf, with Sharp cross-entering this year in the Schuster and the Michael G. Schaefer on dirt. Money Supply, a $400,000 yearling purchase, has won eight races for owner Jordan Wycoff since being claimed for $35,000 almost two years ago. Now 6, the horse has won on turf and dirt, both fast tracks in the slop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lean toward trying to repeat in the grass race, unless on paper it looks like the dirt is a better choice,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cBut he\u2019s doing really well. We just need a little more racing luck. Because the horse is trying to fire big races, and he\u2019s just had some tough trips.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Sharp brings back Highlander Training Center\u2019s $359,700-earner Strikingly Spun for the Indiana General Assembly Distaff, in which she was a close seventh last year, and also is running $336,723-earner Fantastical, fourth in stakes in her last two starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFantastical seems to be the filly that likes to be closer (to the pace),\u201d he said. \u201cSo maybe we\u2019ll have bookends as far as early on in the trip: Have one out close to the pace and one coming from off the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strikingly Spun was uncharacteristically close to the pace in her last start, Churchill Downs\u2019 Keertana Stakes at 1 1\/2 miles on turf before weakening to eighth. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking the blinkers off this time and just hoping we get the right setup,\u201d Sharp said. “She\u2019s a filly that comes running and needs a pace to develop to be her most effective. But she\u2019s training really well, and we\u2019re looking forward to trying to get more \u2018black type\u2019 (stakes placings) for her. I do think the farther the better. But last time she was really sharp, she broke (near the front) and took pressure the whole way. There was some early pressure like the half-mile pole. She had to start her run a little farther out than I would have liked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharp also entered Kavod in Friday\u2019s $100,000 William Garrett Handicap at five furlongs on grass. Kavod won the Fair Grounds\u2019 off-the-turf Duncan F. Kenner and was second by a head in the Colonel Power.<\/p>\n

After several seconds and thirds in the Fair Grounds\u2019 final meet standings in his decade of training, Sharp had a breakthrough winter in New Orleans, winning that title 40-31 over multiple titlist Brad Cox. He came right back and won the Churchill Downs training crown 20 wins to 19 over Cox\u2019s powerful barn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned is that you have to have fresh horses to win races, period,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cObviously, you never want the roll to stop, but I\u2019m very grateful and very appreciative of it. Because I have ridden the highs and lows throughout my career. There are a lot of top guys who have been a model of consistency and maintain consistent high, solid (win) percentages, such as Brad, such as Steve (Asmussen), Todd (Pletcher), Chad (Brown), those guys. I\u2019m trying to stay focused and work to evolve into a barn like that. Hopefully we can continue to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Including at Horseshoe Indy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love going up to Indiana,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cIt\u2019s close, and they\u2019re very accommodating. And their surfaces are very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31st running of the Grade 3 $300,000 Indiana Derby is set for a first post time of 12 p.m. Saturday, July 5 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The race is joined by the Grade 3 $200,000 Indiana Oaks along with six other premier racing events with purses topping $1.1 million. The afternoon program is complemented by numerous activities including a $3,000 Derby Megabet, $2,500 Derby Legends Handicapping Contest, courtesy of the Indiana Horsemen\u2019s Benevolent and Protective Association, $1,000 Derby Hat Contest, courtesy of the Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, cigar rolling station, strolling entertainment food trucks and more. Free parking and general admission to the Indiana Derby, which is open to guests of all ages on the racing side.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Jun 30, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red-Hot Joe Sharp Brings Three For Indiana Derby Undercard originally appeared on Paulick Report. If Kentucky-based Joe Sharp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[34543,46161,23258,89775,89776,88801,1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-228176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-churchill-downs","9":"tag-fair-grounds","10":"tag-indiana","11":"tag-indiana-derby","12":"tag-indiana-general-assembly","13":"tag-joe-sharp","14":"tag-racing","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114775688771222856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}