How to bet the Open Mind Stakes

A strong and well-matched cast of seven fillies and mares will dash six panels on the Churchill Downs main oval in Saturday’s $300,000 Open Mind S. The Michael McCarthy-trained #3 Look Forward (3-1) is not overly consistent, but the daughter of Bolt d’Oro can be very good on her best day, and I will tab her in the heat with Juan Hernandez coming in for the voyage. 

Open Mind Wagers

• $20 exacta 3 with 2 ($20)
• $2 trifecta 3 with 1,2 with all ($20)
• 50-cent superfecta 2,3 with 1,2,3 with 1,2,3 with all ($8)

Purchased for $285,000 as a yearling, the filly has been unraced since August of 2025, when she was a good fourth in the deep Test (G1), and has been training in swift fashion leading up to her return to the races. The Reddam color bearer earned her biggest win to date when taking the Eight Belles (G2) last campaign over a loaded field, and she is three-for-four when traveling one turn overall. If the four-year-old runs to her works, she will be formidable while forwardly placed throughout. 

Trainer Bob Baffert has two dangerous foes in the field, and I like #2 Cash Call (7-2) a bit more than her stablemate on this day. The Grade 3 vixen has won or placed in nine of her 10 lifetime tries to date, and I liked her runner-up showing behind Grade-1 starlet Kilwin two back in the Twin Bridges S. at Ellis Park. The McKinzie filly cuts back in distance after going eight furlongs in her latest venture, and she is better sprinting, evidenced by her 5-3-1-1 mark at six panels in advance of Saturday. The versatile sort will make her move approaching the turn for home with Floren Geroux up. 

Grade 1 queen #1 Usha (5-2) is a graded stakes winner on the Churchill oval, but her last two outings have left something to be desired, and I prefer her inclusion to be in the vertical exotics on this occasion. The Baffert trainee is obviously quite talented, and she also has room for improvement in her second appearance off the short layoff. The Tiz the Law four-year-old figures to be well placed throughout the running, saving ground, with Flavien Prat in the stirrups.