Mike Maker wins his 3,000th race - twice
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Mike Maker won his 3,000th career race on Friday - twice.
At Saratoga, Maker thought he had reached that milestone when Laugh and Play won race 2, a $50,000 claimer. However, after a jockey’s objection from Javier Castellano aboard the runner-up, Quaria Thunder, the Saratoga stewards disqualified Laugh and Play from first and placed her second, though they had left similar incidents earlier in the week alone.
Maker was one of many who disagreed with the call.
“I felt as game as she ran, if they went around again that horse wasn’t going by,” Maker said.
Two hours later, no one could take away win No. 3,000 when Palatial Times won race 5 at Ellis Park, a $7,500 claimer.
“Just another reminder I’m getting old,” Maker said when asked about the significance of 3,000 wins. “Any milestone in this game is very special. It was Ellis. Between Ellis and Saratoga . . . Kentucky’s home. It is what it is, and we’ll gladly accept it.”
Maker watched the Ellis race on his phone from the Saratoga paddock as he was saddling the 2-year-old Love Tank, who finished eighth as the 2-1 favorite.
Maker, 53, worked for his father George Maker, who trained at Detroit Race Course and Hazel Park in Michigan. The younger Maker bought his first horse at age 13 with money he saved by being a hotwalker and delivering newspapers. That horse won first time out. From 1993-2003, he worked for D. Wayne Lukas, and recalls working around horses such as Orientate and Surfside.
“Horses you hold near and dear to your heart seem like yesterday, but it was long ago,” Maker said.
Maker has trained a vast variety of horses from low-level claimers such as Palatial Times to graded stakes winners such as Hansen, the 2-year-old male champion of 2011, and turf stakes winners such as Zulu Alpha, Fire At Will, Aquaphobia, Cross Border, Field Pass, Henley’s Joy, International Star, Oscar Nominated, Da Big Hoss, and Bigger Picture.
Maker said the milestone “is a credit to the staff. You can’t do it alone. The clients we have are all good people. Love racing and hopefully we got another 3,000 in us.”