Wise Dan can add to legend with repeat win in Maker’s 46 Mile

LEXINGTON, Ky. – With every race, the legend grows. Fresh off two straight Horse of the Year campaigns, Wise Dan will take the initial step toward a third when he makes his 2014 debut Friday in the Grade 1, $300,000 Maker’s 46 Mile on the Keeneland turf.

Bred and owned by Morton Fink and based at Keeneland with trainer Charlie LoPresti, Wise Dan will break from post 3 with John Velazquez aboard when facing six other older horses in the Maker’s 46 Mile, a race he won in his first start last year en route to another spectacular season. The 7-year-old gelding is the 2-5 morning-line favorite.

Fink and LoPresti have said the scheduling in 2014 will be different for Wise Dan than during his championship years, which have consisted primarily of turf races at or about one mile.

“This is the best spot for us to start off after giving the horse some time off again this winter,” LoPresti said. “It’s our home track; the fans here in Lexington love seeing him; it’s just the right fit. We’ve said we’re most likely going to branch out into different types of races this year, but that’s for another day. We just want to get past this one first.”

The most recent race for Wise Dan was his repeat victory in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita in November. After getting his customary break, he has had seven workouts since late February in preparing for the Maker’s 46 Mile.

That lack of recency is probably the greatest enticement for the opposition, which includes Za Approval, Lochte, and Reload as the chief threats.

Za Approval (post 1, Julien Leparoux), a terrific second at 18-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Mile last fall, has the benefit of a race in between, having shipped from Florida to run a decent fourth as the favorite in the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita five weeks ago. The owner of the gray gelding, Live Oak Plantation, won the 2006 Maker’s with Miesque’s Approval.

“He’s been a lovely old horse, very consistent,” trainer Christophe Clement said. “I really wanted to have a race in him before we ran in the Maker’s, and it wasn’t a bad one. We will need to be lucky because these Grade 1’s are never easy, especially with a horse like Wise Dan in it.”

Lochte (post 6, Orlando Bocachica), owned by Crossed Sabres Farm, suddenly became a force in the older-horse turf division with a 39-1 upset in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap on the Feb. 9 Donn Handicap undercard. The 4-year-old gelding validated that form by running a big second in the Kilroe Mile.

“I don’t know if we can beat the big horse [Wise Dan],” trainer Marcus Vitali said. “But they’ll know we’re in there.”

Reload (post 5, Javier Castellano), a Phipps Stable homebred, also had a very productive winter in winning back-to-back races on the Gulfstream turf, ending with a rallying score in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf on Feb. 22. His Hall of Fame trainer, Shug McGaughey, won the Maker’s two years ago with Data Link.

The longer shots in the Maker’s 46 field are Alakazan Alakazan (post 2, Jose Lezcano), Gentleman’s Kitten (post 4, Rosie Napravnik), and Kaigun (post 7, Alan Garcia).

Wise Dan, a winner of 19 of 27 starts and almost $6.3 million, will try to become the second two-time winner of the Maker’s, which was first run in 1989. Kip Deville (2007-08), trained by Rick Dutrow, was the first.

The Maker’s 46 is carded as the ninth of 10 Friday races. First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern, with the feature going at 5:13. TVG will have extensive full-day coverage.

The forecast for Friday calls for a 50 percent chance of rain and a high of 66. Clement, for one, said he might submit a scratch if he thinks the turf course will be too soft for his horse.

Friday morning once again brings the Maker’s Mark bottle signings, a wildly popular promotion that typically has hundreds of fans waiting in line in the early-morning hours.