McKnight Stakes: Maker once again loads up with four runners
The strength-in-numbers approach trainer Mike Maker has taken to the Grade 3, $150,000 William L. McKnight Stakes at Gulfstream Park has worked out pretty well over the last five years.
Each year from 2017-22, Maker has had multiple entries in the 1 1/2-mile McKnight. He has won the race four times, including three straight from 2017-19; ran one-two in 2019 and again in 2021; and sent out the second- and third-place finishers in both 2020 and 2022.
Saturday, Maker has four entered in the McKnight led by Temple, the runner-up each of the last two years. He also has the 9-year-old Red Knight – fourth in the 2020 McKnight when trained by Bill Mott – and Value Engineering and Wicked Fast, who finished one-two in the off-the-turf H. Allen Jerkens at Gulfstream last month.
Thirteen were entered in the McKnight, though only 12 are allowed to start. The McKnight is carded as race 9 on the 13-race card and kicks off the late pick five, which ends with the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational.
Temple has recorded five of his seven career victories at Gulfstream, beginning with a maiden $20,000 claimer in 2019 and culminating with the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida last March. He was beaten double-digit lengths in two of his last three starts of 2022, but was a solid second to the Grade 1 winner Highland Chief in the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland in between.
Red Knight, a 9-year-old gelding, won two stakes for Maker last summer before a troubled eighth in the Sycamore and an 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Red Knight is a four-time winner at 1 1/2 miles.
Value Engineering, previously trained by Chad Brown, won his first start for Maker in the H. Allen Jerkens, beating Wicked Fast by 1 1/2 lengths.
While Temple drew post 6, Value Engineering (9), Red Knight (11), and Wicked Fast (12) are all drawn toward the outside.
Abaan won this race for Todd Pletcher last year but hasn’t won since. Trainer Graham Motion tries stretching Pao Alto out in distance after a couple of decent runs at one mile.
Channel Maker, like Red Knight, is making his 9-year-old debut in the McKnight. He has never finished in the money in five starts at Gulfstream.
La Prevoyante Stakes
Brad Cox will have a few runners to keep him busy Saturday before he puts the tack on Cyberknife one last time in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup.
Chief among them is Adventuring, who is the most accomplished of eight fillies and mares entered to run 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 3, $150,000 La Prevoyante Stakes.
Adventuring won the Grade 3 Ladies Marathon going 1 5/16 miles at Kentucky Downs in September before running fifth in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor and third as the favorite in the Grade 3 Cardinal at Churchill Downs last Nov. 24. This is her first start since then.
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“She’s doing well, I think she likes the mile and a quarter, mile and a half,” Cox said. “She performed really well at Kentucky Downs.”
Adventuring won the Kentucky Downs race on the front end, but has been successful stalking the pace as well.
Beside Herself, trained by Todd Pletcher, is the lone runner in this group to have won at 1 1/2 miles, that coming in a second-level allowance at Saratoga last August.
Personal Best, a daughter of Tapit out of the Grade 1 Flower Bowl-winning mare War Flag, should appreciate the distance. She won a first-level allowance going 1 3/8 miles at Aqueduct before finishing third as the favorite in the off-the-turf Tropical Park Oaks.
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Trainer Graham Motion has won the La Prevoyante four times, including back-to-back wins in 2019-20 with Si Es Que Buena and Mean Mary. Saturday, he sends out Lisheen, second in the off-the-turf Via Borghese on Dec. 27.
◗ Wolfie’s Dynaghost pulled off one of the bigger surprises on last year’s Pegasus Day card when he won a handicap over the Tapeta surface at 20-1. Saturday, he returns to Tapeta for the first time since when he runs in the $100,000 Carousel Club, which drew an overflow field of 16. Twelve are permitted to run.
Previously trained by Tom Albertrani, Wolfie’s Dynaghost will make his first start for Jonathan Thomas.
Contention runs deep with King Cause, Skyro, Ramsey Solution, and California Frolic among the win candidates.
◗ Cafe Society, second in two synthetic starts last year, will seek her first win over that surface in Saturday’s $100,000 South Beach Stakes going a mile and 40 yards.
The Shug McGaughey-trained mare will take on Keeper of Time, who won a similar race as this last year on Pegasus Day, Love Her Lots and Illiogami.
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