Maker takes another Texas turf stakes in Ouija Board
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Kentucky-based trainer Mike Maker won his 27th stakes race over a Texas turf course Monday with Dana’s Beauty in the $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff at Lone Star Park.
Maker’s outstanding record includes 17 turf stakes victories at Sam Houston Race Park, where he has won eight runnings of the Grade 3 John B. Connally Turf Cup. Maker also has won six turf stakes at Retama Park.
Dana’s Beauty became his fourth turf stakes winner at Lone Star, where she tracked pacesetter Libban in second before securing a head win under Ramon Vazquez.
“She sat off the leader and finished up nicely,” Maker said.
Dana’s Beauty won the one-mile race in 1:35.44 and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 87. Plans for her next start are to be determined, according to Maker.
“It’s too early to say, but we might come back down at the end of June, try it again,” he said of the $125,000 Wasted Tears.
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The 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares is June 29 at Lone Star.
The Wasted Tears is on a card of four turf stakes led by the $250,000 Texas Turf Classic, which Maker won in both 2022 and 2023. He said Chasing the Crown is under consideration for this year’s renewal of the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up.
Chasing the Crown last ran May 9 and won a three-other-than allowance at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Churchill Downs. He broke from the 10-hole, stalked the pace, and earned a Beyer of 94.
As for the Wasted Tears, it also could draw Ouija Board runner-up Libban.
“She might go back for the race in Dallas,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “We were talking about that with the owners.”
Libban was making her turf debut Monday and earned a career-high Beyer of 87.
Lone Star’s card of turf stakes also will include a pair of turf sprints, with the $125,000 Chicken Fried Stakes for fillies and mares a possible option for Ova Charged, according to her trainer, Shane Wilson. Ova Charged owns the year’s best Beyer Speed Figure, a 113 for a turf sprint win at Fair Grounds.
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