The stands were a little fuller, the excitement was a little higher and the cheers were a little louder Tuesday, August 14 during the sixth race at Indiana Grand. The race included first time starter, Distant Shore, who is owned by the Churchill Downs Racing Club. Approximately 75 members of the Club made the trip to Indiana to watch their horse race and break his maiden in the $31,000 two-year-old maiden race going 5 ½ furlongs.
“This is our first time in the Racing Club and our first time to Indiana Grand,” said Linda Willett of Louisville, Kentucky. “My gosh, this is just unbelievable and I am thrilled to death. We were going to the races a lot this spring at Churchill and we got a letter in the mail so my husband and I decided to try it out. And Gary Palmisano has been so awesome with communicating the information about Distant Shore.”
Willett said her first encounter with Distant Shore was a “meet and greet” at the barn of Tom Amoss. There, she not only met the horse and the trainer, but she also met Palmisano, the Racing Club Manager, who was also in attendance for the debut of Distant Shore.
“We have 200 owners who put up $500 each to be in the Churchill Downs Racing Club,” Palmisano said. “This is Club Number 6. This is our first Club with Tom Amoss. We have people here from everywhere to watch, including Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky and we even have people watching online from Connecticut. It’s open to people everywhere across the nation.”
The members of Churchill Downs Racing Club No. 6 will have Distant Shore through the duration of his career. If he makes enough earnings, the Club will purchase another horse when Distant Shore is no longer racing for the ownership club.
One owner of Distant Shore is Gina Rodriguez of Kokomo, Indiana, who is also a two-time owner in Indiana Grand’s racing club, Grand Gesture Stable. She fails to miss a race of Bold Concept, and she was trackside to witness the win from Distant Shore.
“This is wonderful and he ran such a nice race,” Rodriguez said. “There were a lot of nice horses in there and he so much more than I had imagined. And, he did it so easily. It’s very thrilling.”
Rodriguez will no doubt be trackside to see Bold Concept make her next start for Grand Gesture Stable at Indiana Grand. She was also a member of the inaugural racing Club in Indiana last season that owned A J Pacer. Both horses are trained by Anthony Granitz at Indiana Grand. Rodriguez will also keep close tabs on her latest acquisition, Distant Shore, who was impressive in his racing debut.
Ridden by Alex Canchari, Distant Shore got out of the gate as one of the top contenders and sat patiently in a stalking position before overtaking race leader Sambucca and Gabriel Saez in the turn. Distant Shore, who was acquired from the Fasig Tipton Maryland Two-Year-Old Sale this past spring for $50,000, strode off from the competition, winning by four lengths as the 5-2 favorite. A Maryland-bred son of Algorithms, Distant Shore stopped the teletimer in 1:04.84.
The win was one of two for Canchari on the afternoon card. Canchari, a native of Minnesota, is among the track’s top five jockeys this season in his first year of riding at Indiana Grand.
Distant Shore was also one of two wins on the program for Amoss, who currently leads the standings at Indiana Grand. The Louisiana native is a five-time leading trainer and holds several training records at Indiana Grand, including most wins in one season (81) and most money earned in one season, more than $1.5 million.
Distant Shore is the first foal of our Touch Gold mare Glimpse, and is the third generation of his family to be foaled and raised at Thornmar. Both Glimpse and her half sister, Desiderata, dam of MSW Everything Lovely, are out of Almost Paradise, SP daughter of Allen’s Prospect and SW,SP Muffies Muffin. For those who like to study pedigrees, Distant Shore is pure Maryland on his bottom line.