World Approval to skip Maker's 46 Mile

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The 2017 turf champion, World Approval, is bypassing the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile here Friday after trainer Mark Casse decided he wasn’t satisfied with how the 6-year-old horse has trained lately.

“He hasn’t been showing the enthusiasm I’d prefer to see coming into a race this tough,” Casse said early Monday from Ocala, Fla. “He’s fine, and he’s gone through this kind of cycle on us before, so hopefully it’s no big deal. We’ve got a lot of options upcoming. My biggest concern is making it back to the Breeders’ Cup [Mile] and how we do that.”

Without World Approval, the likely favorites among a field of 10 older horses in the $300,000 Maker’s 46 are Heart to Heart (post 6) and Om (post 9). Friday entries were drawn Sunday.

Entries for a big Saturday card that includes four stakes, led by the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley, will be drawn Wednesday. The other stakes are the Lexington, Ben Ali, and Giant’s Causeway.

◗ Jose Ortiz, the 2017 Eclipse Award for top jockey, has a fine start on his stated goal of being the top jockey at the meet.

Through the first three cards, Ortiz led in wins (six), mounts (23), and mount earnings ($989,886), with his flawless ride aboard Good Magic in the Blue Grass accounting for the bulk of those earnings.

Florent Geroux, with five wins and $463,463 in mount earnings, is closest to Ortiz in both categories.

◗ The blanket finish of the Madison was not unlike another Grade 1 race run here four years ago. It was on April 12, 2014, that Hard Not to Like won the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley while the fifth-place finisher, Centre Court, finished less than a length behind the winner.