Sweet Chocolate Wins Opener at Indiana Grand
Sweet Chocolate and Israel Ocampo cruised to victory in the season opener at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino Tuesday, April 21. The event kicked off the nine-race card of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing at the Shelbyville, Ind. facility, which runs through Saturday, Oct. 31.
Starting from post three, Sweet Chocolate rallied out quickly from the gate, securing the top spot along the inside as Moonlight Success and Malcolm Franklin applied pressure on the outside. Cecil Get Your Gun and Albin Jimenez kept close in third through the majority of the five and one-half furlong race.
In the stretch, Sweet Chocolate had created a solid hold of the top spot. Moonlight Success held her ground along the inside as Cecil Get Your Gun posed the biggest threat to the top two, moving up slowly alongside Moonlight Success for the stretch battle. Sweet Chocolate maintained the lead and cruised under the wire for the win by one and three-quarter lengths. Cecil Get Your Gun won the head bob by a nose over Moonlight Success to finish in second place.
“I wanted to get out on the lead early,” said Ocampo, who was making his Indiana Grand racing debut in the race. “The filly (Sweet Chocolate) was drifting out a little bit but I was able to get better control once we got on the lead. At the quarter pole, I had a lot of horse left. At that point, we just needed to get to the wire. She raced well and helped get us there for the win.”
Ocampo comes to Indiana for the first time from the Oaklawn Park race meet, where he finished among the track’s top 20 jockeys. The native of Mexico began riding in 2002 and came to the United States shortly after that to pursue his career as a jockey. Since that time, he has earned leading rider titles at Hawthorne Racecourse and Canterbury Park. Ocampo is closing in on 1,000 career wins.
“It’s a great way to start the meet,” said Ocampo. “I’ve had a great response from the trainers and owners and I really like it here. I also want to thank trainer Kim Hammond for my first Indiana win.”
Hammond, who is ranked in fourth on the list of all-time leading trainers at Indiana Grand, also started off the meet well. She is the trainer of both Sweet Chocolate and Moonlight Success, who finished third in the race. The native of Illinois is the all-time winning female trainer in horse racing, hitting her 2,000th career win in 2014.
Sweet Chocolate was making her third start for Hammond. She is owned by Chris Walsh, who bred the four-year-old daughter of Star Cat with Alan Walsh. The Indiana sired filly was making her fourth start of 2015 and earned her first career win in the $9,000 maiden claiming event.
The season opener was greeted with a mild afternoon of weather and a good attendance in the stands. Racing fans were treated to a new feature for racing with the addition of Trakus, an accurate, real time listing of the horses during the race. Special “chicklets” follow the full field on the television monitors during the race for accurate tracking. The display is detected through sensors in each of the saddle pads, enhancing the entire television package for Indiana Grand. With Quarter Horse racing held at Indiana Grand, it becomes the first location to offer Trakus for the sprinters.
“We had great weather to kick off our 13th season of racing, and the track crew has done an excellent job in preparing the surface for the race meet,” said Jon Schuster, vice president and general manager of racing. “We are also appreciative of the continued support from the community. We hope to make the meet excellent for our customers, and adding Trakus is a great way to enhance our racing program.”
Fernando De La Cruz, 2014 leading rider at Indiana Grand, was the day’s big winner, reeling in three winners in five starts on the card. The native of Peru scored wins in the fourth race aboard Wired Warrior, the fifth race aboard Daddy Justice and the seventh race aboard Bourne Free.
Source: Indiana Grand Racing & Casino