At first glance, Impel looks like a slam dunk to win the Indiana Oaks. She’s run the fastest races, faced the strongest opposition, and the 7-5 morning-line price notwithstanding, she figures an odds-on favorite facing no more than seven foes Saturday at Horseshoe Indianapolis in the Grade 3, $250,000 Indiana Oaks. At second glance, the filly Chatalas merits respect. Her form obscures her baseline ability, and Chatalas has moved from California to Kentucky specifically to run in dirt-route races, while Impel still must prove she really wants two turns. Chatalas hasn’t started since December and never has raced outside California, but her connections, Rancho Temescal Thoroughbred Partners and trainer Mark Glatt, sent her in early June to trainer Grant Forster, based at the Churchill Downs training center in Louisville. Forster said he and Glatt, who remains involved in Chatalas’s preparations, are friends. The timing of Chatalas’s comeback coincides with the Del Mar meeting, where 3-year-old filly stakes opportunities come on turf. “The gist of it is, they think she’s a two-turn dirt filly,” Forster said. Chatalas, by Gun Runner, won the only dirt route, the Grade 2 Chandelier, where she truly had a fair shot. Fillies on both sides of her crunched Chatalas leaving the gate in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and in the Starlet Stakes, Chatalas cruised along just behind pacesetting Nothing Like You when midway around the far turn something went amiss. Chatalas either took a bad step or tried to get out. Whatever the cause, Chatalas in one stride went from racing in hand to coming off the bridle and losing all her momentum, and, to finish things off, a rival badly impeded her in upper stretch. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. “She gives every indication she must be moving forward as a 3-year-old,” Forster said. “She’s a big, long-striding filly, very laid back. You’d probably like to keep her in the clear a little bit.” Jockey Antonio Fresu could go to the lead from post 2 unless Impel wants to cross over from post 7 and make the front. Impel didn’t run poorly in the Grade 1 Ashland, where she was 2-1 after a rousing route debut in an Oaklawn Park allowance race. But after contesting a moderate pace, Impel lacked late spark and finished third, beaten 3 3/4 lengths. The two ahead of her, Leslie’s Rose and Just F Y I, sit several rungs above the competition Saturday, though Impel, finishing second, was cut back to seven furlongs in her post-Ashland start, the Eight Belles. “She’s got a really good mind, acts like a filly that would go long, so we’re going to give it another shot,” trainer Brad Cox said. At 1 1/16 miles, the race falls short of an ideal distance for Neon Icon, an open-lengths winner of her two starts, a Keeneland maiden and a Churchill allowance. Neon Icon has beaten a total of nine rivals and last out ran 1 1/4 miles in a race rained off turf. “She’s got a lot of talent, but she needs racing experience, and we picked a spot to see if she can answer the call,” trainer Rusty Arnold said. “The distance probably isn’t ideal. I hope to get her back to a mile and a quarter.” Band of Gold, 3-1 second choice on the morning line, scored her signature win in February over a sloppy track and in four starts has failed to run back to that performance. She lost some ground last out in the Monomoy Girl at Churchill but otherwise had a clean run before a tepid finish. Little Jamie and Just Be Quiet aren’t without some chance, while Charlene’s Dream has a lesser one and Dancing Princess none at all. Schaefer Memorial Mr. Wireless ran so well this past March winning a six-furlong comeback race that his connections felt compelled to sprint him a second time. Squeezed at the start, Mr. Wireless never truly reached contention, finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs over seven furlongs. Saturday, he returns to route racing in the $100,000 Michael Schaefer Memorial and does so on a surface where he’s never lost. Mr. Wireless won the 2021 Indiana Derby and the 2022 Schaefer, and at something close to his 5-1 morning-line odds would offer value despite a poor draw in post 10. “Everybody got so high on him sprinting off the number he ran in that race,” trainer Bret Calhoun said. Mr. Wireless earned a career-best 102 Beyer in the six-furlong Fair Grounds start in March. “He’s back in the kind of race where he needs to be. I’m expecting him to run pretty good.” Calhoun has Kupuna entered in the Schaefer and a Saturday turf race but said Kupuna runs on dirt. Kupuna finished second last out in a Churchill allowance behind rail-drawn pace player Five Star General, second in the 2023 Schaefer to Trademark. Cross-entered Saturday at Prairie Meadows, Trademark runs at Indiana following two flat showings this spring after returning from a layoff. Money Supply drops in class from a pair of Grade 2s and stands a strong chance of winning if he returns to his winter and spring form. The Schaefer’s sister race, the Mari Hulman George, starts the Saturday stakes action, going as race 5, and Calhoun here has a key contender in Hidden Connection. Five-year-old Hidden Connection has alternated good races with poor ones over the last six starts, and following a good third in the Doubledogdare at Keeneland, she flopped June 1 in the Shawnee at Churchill. “She’s gotten a little specific about her surface and trip. She hasn’t been able to overcome a lot of obstacles recently,” Calhoun said. Loved, who finished behind Hidden Connection in the Doubledogdare, her most recent start, is listed as the 7-5 morning-line favorite. Schuster Memorial Since moving from France in 2020, Masteroffoxhounds has left California just once, finishing fourth in the 2021 Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic on Derby Day at Churchill. Last seen finishing 13th in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Masteroffoxhounds makes his second trip east and runs Saturday in the $100,000 Jonathan Schuster Memorial over 1 1/16 miles on grass. No Grade 1, the Schuster did draw a solid field, though five of the 11 entrants were cross-entered in other spots, and several are expected to be scratched. Masteroffoxhounds probably goes best over 1 1/8 miles and longer and is one of several plausible winners. Me and Mr. C hasn’t looked like the same horse in 2024 he was in 2023, but he did win last year’s Schuster, albeit by a nose. Runaway Storm makes his 4-year-old debut after capping his 3-year-old campaign with a good third behind Integration and Program Trading in the Virginia Derby and an upset win at Keeneland in the Grade 3 Bryan Station. The $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff, for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on turf, drew an inscrutable field of 10. Drawn widest is Elounda Queen, who makes her first start for Cox and was compromised last out at Monmouth by a slow pace. The tempo in Saturday’s race won’t be especially fast, either, which helps Regal Realm, a forwardly placed mare who makes her first start since November. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.