Keeneland: General Jack can give Maker a repeat in Breeders' Futurity

[bc_video_id:306289:]Last October Mike Maker won two Grade 1 races at separate tracks a mere 24 minutes apart, first winning the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland with Joha and then the Jamaica Handicap at Belmont with longshot King David.

A year later, he has a shot at the same Grade 1 quick-turnaround double, starting morning-line favorite Admiral Kitten in the Jamaica at 4:40 Eastern and 5-1 shot General Jack in the Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity at 4:55.

Seemingly the tougher of the two races to win is the $400,000 Breeders’ Futurity, which drew 14 entrants, plus a couple of also-eligibles.

Runner-up in his debut at Belmont Park, General Jack won the $100,000 Shakopee Juvenile Stakes at Canterbury in his second start on Aug. 3, gaining two-turn experience in a race contested at 7 1/2 furlongs. Both races were on turf.

Maker, who co-owns the colt with Tom Conway, entered General Jack in the Aug. 29 With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga, but the horse was scratched after a leg became swollen due to an infection.

General Jack has not raced for two months, but Maker is not concerned about fitness, noting General Jack is a horse that “puts a lot into his work and his gallops.”

The Breeders’ Futurity, a Win and You’re In Breeders’ Cup Challenge race for the Juvenile, will mark the first time General Jack will race on Polytrack. His pedigree suggests he should like the synthetic surface. General Jack is by Giant’s Causeway, one of the leading all-weather sires in North America in recent years.

Maker has a history of success with this surface switch, having won with 23 percent of his turf-to-Polytrack runners at Keeneland over the past five years with a $2.55 return on investment, according to Daily Racing Form ’s Formulator database. Also in the past five years, Maker has won four graded stakes from 14 starters in such races at Keeneland: Joha in last year’s Breeders’ Futurity; Lonesome Street in the 2012 Commonwealth; Derby Kitten in the 2011 Lexington Stakes; and Stately Victor in the 2010 Blue Grass.

Alan Garcia, winning with 28 percent of his mounts for Maker this year, will be aboard General Jack.

Five Breeders’ Futurity entrants have won on a synthetic surface: Rum Point, Solitary Ranger, Conquest Titan, Ready for Action, and Smarty’s Echo. Solitary Ranger, winner of the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity, and Conquest Titan, who won the Swynford at Woodbine, are the most accomplished of them.

Solitary Ranger is one of two horses in the race trained by Wayne Catalano, with the other being School on the Hill, who also was entered in the Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes on turf on Sunday at Keeneland.

Solitary Ranger twice ran second in the spring meet in fast maiden races going 4 1/2 furlongs, including once behind No Nay Never, who capped an unbeaten 2-year-old year with a Group 1 victory in France for Wesley Ward. Returned from a short break in the Arlington-Washington Futurity Sept. 7, Solitary Ranger won by 5 1/2 lengths going away.

“He’s training really well,” Catalano said, praise confirmed by a pair of bullet workouts at Keeneland since his Arlington victory.

Conquest Titan also has drawn rave reviews from his trainer, Mark Casse, who said, “He trains like a superstar.”

Other promising 2-year-olds in the lineup, though with only dirt racing experience, include Cross Holiday, Kendall’s Boy, and Tiznowforamerica. Cross Holiday also was entered in Saturday’s Champagne at Belmont Park by trainer Todd Pletcher.