by Steve Bailey

Trainer Greg Gilchrist has been around enough speedy horses to know he has an exceptionally fast filly on his hands in multiple Grade 3 winner Indyanne.

Gilchrist, who trained champion sprinter Lost in the Fog and Grade 2 winner Smokey Stover, is back in the national spotlight with the talented three-year-old Indian Charlie filly following her head victory over multiple Grade 3 winner Wild Gams in the $300,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G3) on Saturday at Keeneland Race Course.

With the TCA Stakes victory under jockey Robby Albarado, Indyanne rebounded from her only career defeat and earned a spot in the $1-million Sentient Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on October 24 at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita Park as part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" series.

In her previous start in the Victory Ride Stakes (G3) on August 23 at Saratoga Race Course, Indyanne was caught in the final 50 yards by Porte Bonheur and lost by a half-length.

"She really should have been undefeated," Gilchrist said. "She lunged at the break and got left up there [at Saratoga], but she broke well today.

"I really didn't like being on the inside of [Sugar Swirl] that much, but that's why Robby earns the money. He did a great job."

Owned by David and Jill Heerensperger, Indyanne won her two starts as a juvenile by a combined 16 lengths at Bay Meadows Race Course. She opened her three-year-old campaign with back-to-back victories in an allowance race at Golden Gate Fields on June 6 and the Azalea Stakes (G3) on July 12 at Calder Race Course by a combined 16 ½ lengths prior to the Victory Ride.

In the Thoroughbred Club of America, Indyanne went right to the lead as expected and set blazing fractions of :21.77 and :44.54 through a half-mile as Wild Gams, the winner of last year's Thoroughbred Club of America, gradually made her way from near the back of the eight-horse field to challenge.

Indyanne dug in with determination through the lane under Albarado, who won three races on the day, and gamely held off a fast-closing Wild Gams while covering six furlongs in 1:08.50 on the synthetic Polytrack surface.
 
"It's easy when you ride great fillies like her," Albarado said. "She was very kind about everything she did today. She's very talented and her time shows it."
 
Grade 2 winner Sugar Swirl finished third, another four lengths behind Wild Gams.

"She ran good, but the winner ran great," trainer Ben Perkins Jr. said of Wild Gams. She had a clear shot at her and just didn't get up. She swerved a little through the lane and it might have cost her a little momentum, but then she just needed another jump.

"[Wild Gams] is probably going to be retired. We had kind of planned that, so she's here and she'll probably just stay right here."

For an Equibase chart, click here.

Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times