Somelikeithotbrown caps big weekend for Maker in Dinner Party Stakes

BALTIMORE – Somelikeithotbrown got a perfect trip under Jose Ortiz when closing out a huge weekend at Pimlico for trainer Mike Maker in the Grade 2, $250,000 Dinner Party Stakes, the traditional lead-in to the Preakness.

Always in a great spot when stalking longshot front-runner Flying Scotsman in the 1 1/16-mile turf race, Somelikeithotbrown went to the lead without being asked approaching the quarter pole, then had plenty of kick to hold off a jumble of latecomers. He paid $7.60 as second choice in a field of eight older turf horses after finishing in a course-record 1:40.09 over a course that clearly was playing very fast Saturday. He earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

Talk Or Listen was second, a length behind the winner and a head before Midnight Tea Time. Sacred Life and Bye Bye Melvin dead-heated for fourth, just another half-length back.

The Dinner Party, long known as the Dixie before being renamed last year, was the fourth stakes win of the two-day Preakness weekend for Maker, effectively clinching the $50,000 first prize in the annual trainers’ bonus contest. Maker also won the Pimlico Special with Last Judgment, the Black-Eyed Susan with Army Wife, and the Maryland Sprint with Special Reserve.

“It’s super because the clients we’ve won for have been longtime supporters,” Maker said.

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Somelikeithotbrown, a 5-year-old New York-bred horse by Big Brown, is owned by the Louisville-based partnership of Skychai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable. He had ascended toward the top echelon of the North American turf ranks last year, including back-to-back races in October in which he had earned 105 Beyer Speed Figures, but had been soundly defeated in his last two starts, including a seventh-place finish in his 2021 comeback last month in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland. He now has won 7 of 19 overall, with this being his second Grade 2 score, following the Bernard Baruch at Saratoga last July.

“He hadn’t run all that well at Gulfstream, so we gave him some time off over the winter,” Maker said. “In the Maker’s Mile, he was involved in a hot pace, so we just scratched it off and pointed to this race where he ran a good second last year” behind the since-retired Factor This on the 2020 Preakness undercard in October.

Sacred Life, the 13-10 favorite, had no apparent excuse. The Chad Brown trainee lagged back early, then angled wide for the drive, but it was all he could do to salvage the dead heat for fourth. A second Brown trainee, Kuramata, was away poorly and failed to be a factor when finishing last as the 4-1 third choice.

Somelikeithotbrown lowered the former course record set in June 2016 by .15 of a second.

The $2 exacta (1-6) paid $90.80, and the $1 trifecta (1-6-4) returned $393.40.