FRANKLIN, Ky. – Mike Maker has created quite a few profitable niches for himself since leaving the D. Wayne Lukas fold in 2003.
Maker has accumulated stable earnings of more than $84 million while training the winners of more than 2,150 races, including 69 graded stakes. In the meantime, the 49-year-old Michigan native has become the all-time leading trainer at Kentucky Downs and in the Claiming Crown.
FRANKLIN, Ky. – Fields for the first four stakes of the 11-day September meet at Churchill Downs are taking shape for next Saturday, led by a pair of 2-year-old fixtures carrying implications toward the Breeders’ Cup and the annual May classics.
Both the Grade 2 Pocahontas for fillies and Grade 3 Iroquois for 2-year-olds are Win and You’re In events toward the Nov. 2-3 Breeders’ Cup at Churchill, as well as the first qualifying points races toward the 2019 Kentucky Derby and Oaks. As such, both 1 1/16-mile races are expected to draw competitive fields.
Gulfstream Park will host the Claiming Crown through 2021, according to an announcement on Thursday. The three-year agreement that begins in 2019 provides for the $1.1 million event to be held during the Championship meet at Gulfstream.
This year's Claiming Crown is set for Dec. 1 at Gulfstream.
Gulfstream made the announcement with the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
Miss Sunset, the winner of Monday’s CERF Stakes at Del Mar, is bound for Kentucky and the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 6. Trainer Jeff Bonde is hopeful it will be a two-race journey and Miss Sunset will remain in Kentucky for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.
The $250,000 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes is for fillies and mares at six furlongs. The winner receives a fees-paid berth for the BC Filly and Mare Sprint.
Summering, the undefeated winner of the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf last Sunday, is likely to have her next start in the $100,000 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita in advance of a possible trip to Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 2. The Surfer Girl, at a mile on turf for 2-year-old fillies, will be run on Oct. 8.
“She came out of her race well,” owner Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm said on Thursday. “The plan is to run her in the Surfer Girl and our hope is she’ll keep doing what she’s doing.
Itsinthepost, the dominant older male on turf in California in the last 18 months, is on the verge of a vacation after two disappointing performances at Del Mar this summer.
Trainer Jeff Mullins said that Itsinthepost will be sent to a local farm on Saturday for a brief rest. Itsinthepost is expected to resume racing in 2019.
“We’ll see how he likes being at the farm,” Mullins said. “Sometimes, they like being at the racetrack.”
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Jeremiah Englehart had a successful summer with his New York-bred juvenile fillies, many of whom will be pointed to stakes races in the coming weeks.
Sue’s Fortune, who won the Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga on Aug. 11, will make her next start in the Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont on Oct. 7. Sue’s Fortune, a daughter of Jump Start, is 2 for 2, having also defeated New York-bred maidens by 8 1/2 lengths.
ELMONT, N.Y. – If rain doesn’t force Saturday’s Grade 3 James Penny Memorial at Parx off the turf, Divine Miss Grey will run in Sunday’s $100,000 Royal Delta Stakes at Belmont Park.
Divine Miss Grey was one of seven entered Thursday for the Royal Delta, which is restricted to fillies and mares who have not won a Grade 1 or Grade 2 stakes this year. It allows Grade 3 stakes winners, which is why Berned, who beat Divine Miss Grey in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher, was eligible to be entered.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement hopes Pure Sensation’s victory in Monday’s Turf Monster Stakes at Parx – the third straight year the horse has won that race – is the beginning of a productive fall for the 7-year-old gelding that ends with a start in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
Pure Sensation and his stablemate Disco Partner will both be pointed to the Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational at Belmont Park on Oct. 7. Pure Sensation won the Belmont Turf Sprint in 2016, and Disco Partner took top honors in 2017.
Jockey Victor Espinoza, sidelined since July 22 with a neck injury sustained in a training accident at Del Mar, will continue physical therapy for another month before an assessment is made on an expected return to race riding, his agent, Brian Beach, said on Wednesday afternoon.
Espinoza met with doctors in the Del Mar area on Wednesday afternoon and was told he will no longer be required to wear a rigid brace that prevented him from moving from his head from side to side. The removal of the brace will allow for greater mobility and an increase in the intensity of the therapy.
