From the Horseshoe Indianapolis Media Team / Jennie Rees:

Notes From the Indiana General Assembly Distaff:

David Carroll, assistant trainer Mark Casse, dead-heat winner Hendy Woods: “At first I thought we got it, and then I watched the replay I thought we got a bad nod. Mark (by phone) asked me if I’d take a dead heat, I said, ‘At this stage, yes I would.’ She had a great trip. I saw the fractions early on and they were 22, 44, exceptionally fast. When he called upon her, she ran her race. Rafael (Bejarano on Flippant) snuck up the inside and got a great trip. Great race, great finish. We’re very happy. We’re very proud of her.”

Florent Geroux, jockey dead-heat winner Handy Woods: “I got a great trip. I was following the filly of Brendan Walsh’s (Lake Lucerne), tipped out and it took her a while to hit her best stride late. The filly of Rafael’s finished with a rush at the end. It was a very close call. I had no idea who one. I was close.”

Rafael Bejarano, jockey dead-heat winner Flippant: “Honestly, I thought I got beat. My horse tried so hard. But the way the track was playing on the inside (after Friday’s rain), it was a kind of a little deep. But I had no other choice but to come inside because the 4 (Geroux) he decided to come outside. My horse kept running at the end. It was like a head bob of the head to get the job done. It was good to see her win.”

Vicki Oliver, trainer dead-heat winner Flippant (by phone): “I thought she ran really big. She had to kind of thread the needle to get in there. I wasn’t sure we were going to get through. But she’s a pretty game, tough filly. I was surprised when they showed a dead heat; I thought we were second, actually. It was pretty fun to have a dead heat. That was the first for me a dead heat in a stakes win.”

(Flippant won three in a row last year before finishing eighth in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Keeneland, after which she was off until finishing a close third in Monmouth Park’s Miss Liberty May 30): “Yeah, I campaigned her pretty hard last year and I shipped her all around, so I just gave her some time off, turned her out for a couple of months and then brought her back for the spring. She ran well in her return, just got a little tired. She had been training really, really well going into this race. I was anxious to run her.”