Maker takes five shots at upsetting Abaan in Mac Diarmida

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It wouldn’t be a big day at Gulfstream Park without a couple of three-turn turf marathons to entertain the fans. The Grade 2 Mac Diarmida and its filly-mare twin, the Grade 3 The Very One, both will be run at 1 3/8 miles as lead-in events on a busy 13-race Fountain of Youth card Saturday.

Mac Diarmida (race 11)

Eleven older males are entered in the $200,000 Mac Diarmida, and only three of them are trained by someone other than Mike Maker or Todd Pletcher.

Maker has five starters and Pletcher has three, but those numbers are perhaps secondary to this one – the 96 earned on the Beyer Speed Figure scale by the Pletcher-trained Abaan in easily winning the latest race in this division, the Grade 3 W.L. McKnight on Jan. 29. Asked whether any of his fivesome is capable of upsetting Abaan, Maker responded: “Good question.”

Abaan, with Luis Saez riding from post 1, has proven uncatchable since Pletcher started running him at these longer distances on turf, winning each of his last three races on or very near the front. Wire-to-wire scores in a November allowance at Aqueduct and the two-mile Allen Jerkens in late December here at Gulfstream preceded the McKnight.

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Still, five chances are better than one in trying to halt the hot streak of Abaan, the 8-5 morning-line favorite. Whether there is enough speed to oppose him is probably the most important question facing his challengers.

Toward that end, Maker said the addition of blinkers “hopefully will help” one of his more capable entries, Tide of the Sea (post 4, Rafael Hernandez), in showing more early foot and in recapturing the form that made him the McKnight winner and Mac Diarmida runner-up last winter. Temple (post 8, Jose Ortiz) ran on late to be second when no threat in the latest renewal of the McKnight and “might’ve been the best horse that day,” Maker said. “He didn’t get away very well and made up quite a lot of ground.”

Maker said he intends all five to start, the others being Kygo, Glynn County, and Media Blitz.

Shamrocket and Gloucestershire are the two other Pletcher trainees. As for the rest, Safe Conduct (post 6, Julien Leparoux) certainly belongs class-wise, having won the prestigious Queen’s Plate at Woodbine last summer for Phil Serpe. Lure Him In and Fantasioso complete the lineup.

This is the 25th running of the Mac Diarmida, which is named for the Florida-bred who at age 3 was named the North American turf champion of 1978 by winning 12 of 14 starts for the late Scotty Schulhofer.

The Very One (race 5)

Beautiful Lover got a beautiful trip before edging past her Christophe Clement-trained stablemate, Sorrel, in winning the La Prevoyante in the final jumps here five Saturdays ago. They’ll be rematched again in the 32nd running of the $150,000 The Very One when trying to extend their trainer’s record for victories from seven to eight in this race, although there’s a newcomer to the scene who will be looking to upend them both.

Virginia Joy (post 5, Irad Ortiz Jr.) is returning from a layoff of nearly eight months for Chad Brown, and she could be tough getting past. Her Beyer pattern of 92-97-93 in three starts last spring and summer on the Belmont Park turf suggest she’s a solid candidate to emerge as a star this year in a division Brown has dominated for the last decade. Six timed works at Payson Park since mid-January suggest the 5-year-old German-bred mare could be ready to roll.

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If not, then the Clement pair are probably the ones to beat. Beautiful Lover (post 8, Joel Rosario) may have had a difficult time catching Sorrel (post 9, Jose Ortiz) if not for the textbook ride she got from Rosario in the La Prevoyante; either way, they both have shown themselves quite capable at this level.

Pletcher’s only entry, Mezcal (post 6, Saez), is one of the fringe players in a field of nine after she led all the way in an off-turf Tapeta marathon in her local debut Jan. 13. Owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, the 4-year-old filly will have to up her Beyer game after peaking thus far with back-to-back 77s in turf allowances last fall in New York.

“She won on the synthetic, but I think she’s a little better on the turf and this is the kind of distance she likes,” Pletcher said. “She’s stepping up in class a bit, but she’s a filly that seems to be improving.”

Family Way (post 7, Tyler Gaffalione) and Harajuku are two other possibilities at a longer price, while Kelsey’s Cross, Onyx, and the lone Maker entry, Quinevere, round out the cast as longshots.

The Very One was a millionaire turf mare who won eight graded stakes in late '70s and early '80s for Helen Polinger of Olney, Md., and trainer Stephen A. Di Mauro.