Maker readying his summer divisions; will send 25 horses to Del Mar

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Unlike his colleagues a few miles away at Churchill Downs, Mike Maker isn’t currently faced with the inconvenience of pulling up stakes for the summer. Maker long has made the Trackside training center his primary base in non-winter months, and his stable is therefore unaffected by the upcoming turf-course overhaul that will force evacuation of the Churchill barn area for nine weeks, starting July 5.

Not that Maker won’t be on the move all summer – to the contrary. The 52-year-old trainer soon will be spending much of his time, as usual, with a string at Saratoga while also overseeing what transpires with his horses not only at Ellis Park and Gulfstream Park, but also at Del Mar, where he recently announced he intends to send about 25 horses in the care of assistant Nolan Ramsey for a meet that begins July 16.

The Del Mar horses “will ship on FedEx sometime the second week of July,” said Maker, alluding to how Tex Sutton equine charters are still unavailable.

Even with a dozen stakes wins already in 2021 – including four on an extraordinary Preakness weekend at Pimlico – and a productive Churchill spring meet with 14 wins (third most, through last weekend), Maker might just now be getting warmed up. His stable will be barnstorming the country in various stakes in the coming weeks while simultaneously being pointed to the lucrative six-day meet (Sept. 5-12) at Kentucky Downs, where Maker is easily the all-time leading trainer.

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Foremost among the Maker horses expected to be active on a Stephen Foster program that ends the Churchill meet on June 26 is Somelikeithotbrown, a last-out winner of the Grade 2 Dinner Party at Pimlico. The 5-year-old New York-bred goes in the Grade 2 Wise Dan, one of seven stakes on a huge closing-day card.

Otherwise, many of the top Maker horses are headed for out-of-town engagements. Last Judgment, winner of the Grade 3 Pimlico Special, goes next in the July 2 Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows, where Special Reserve, winner of the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint, runs the following night in the Iowa Sprint. Chess’s Dream runs Wednesday in the Mystic Lake at Canterbury Park. Mo Mosa, a 23-1 winner of the Grade 3 Sexton Mile, probably goes next in the San Diego on July 17 at Del Mar.

Maker said Zulu Alpha probably will make his 8-year-old debut in the Arlington Stakes on July 17, as opposed to the United Nations the same day at Monmouth Park, followed by runs in the Mister D. (formerly the Arlington Million) on Aug. 14 and Calumet Turf Cup on Sept. 11 at Kentucky Downs.

Army Wife, he added, “went to the farm for a couple of weeks” following her triumph last month in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan and had her first breeze since returning Sunday. Maker said he has no specific comeback spot in mind yet.

Also, Fire At Will, the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner, remains sidelined for an indefinite period after exiting an April 24 breeze with an unspecified injury that did not require surgery. In his two starts at 3, the Declaration of War colt was eighth in the Fountain of Youth and third as the favorite in the Transylvania on April 2 on turf.

◗ Sconsin and Four Graces, both of them two-time graded winners, will be rematched Saturday in the weekend highlight at Churchill, the $110,000 Roxelana for fillies and mares. Entries for the 6 1/2-furlong overnight stakes were drawn Wednesday.