Mr. Wireless, who earned his first stakes victory a year ago in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby, returns to Horseshoe Indianapolis for Saturday's $100,000 Michael G. Schaefer Memorial.
Trained by Churchill Downs-based Bret Calhoun, Mr. Wireless repeated his Indiana performance a month later in the West Virginia Derby for his second Grade 3 triumph. The Dialed In gelding hit a bump when fifth in the Oklahoma Derby, exiting that race with a tiny knee chip. He returned to the races this year with a sixth-place finish in a June 5 allowance race at Churchill Downs.
Calhoun had what he thought was a crafty plan for Mr. Wireless' second start off the eighth-month layoff. With Churchill Downs having issues with its turf course, Calhoun figured there was a good chance that the Grade 2 Wise Dan would be staged on dirt, making it a great landing spot. Instead, the stakes was canceled.
Fortunately, the Schaefer Memorial fell only a week later. Mr. Wireless is the 5-1 fourth choice with jockey Deshawn Parker in a well-balanced field of eight older horses racing a mile and 70 yards. The front-running Thomas Shelby, a 10-time winner who earlier this year finished second by a neck in Oaklawn Park's Grade 3 Razorback, is the 5-2 favorite.
“Obviously he'd been off for a while,” Calhoun said of Mr. Wireless, who last year gave the trainer his second Indiana Derby victory in three years, following Mr. Money in 2019. “The main thing was to get a race back in him. We were lucky to get a race at Churchill to go. It was like a graded stakes, a tough place to come back in. He was pretty fresh, sharp. He got in the race early on and went pretty fast fractions. He got tired, but I thought it was a sneaky good race. He just got a little tired that day, but I think it got him where we needed to be for the Schaefer.
“The Schaefer just worked out for us time-wise. We know he handled that surface last year. It was a perfect spot for us. He's doing really, really well, and I expect a big race out of him. But it's a building process. First race back, this is second race back. He'll get better and better. We're just hoping that he'll return to top form. He's given us all the indicators in the morning, so we're pretty optimistic about him coming in for the Schaefer.”
Calhoun hasn't looked beyond the Schaefer.
“We're going race by race,” he said. “He's a gelding, so we don't have to worry about chasing Grade 1s or stuff like that if we don't want to. We can kind of duck and dive if we need to, try to run out as much money as we can. The owners still own the family, so it is important to build the pedigree. Right now, I'd say we just want to maximize his earnings.”
Mr. Wireless is 4-1-0 in eight starts, earning $684,067.
Churchill Downs' cancellation of the Wise Dan gave Indiana another top stakes entrant with Somelikeithotbrown in the $100,000 Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial at 1 1/16 miles on turf.
The cleverly named Somelikeithotbrown — he's sired by 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown and is out of the roan mare Marilyn Monroan — sports an 8-6-3 record in 24 lifetime starts for earnings just shy of $1.2 million for Skychai Racing and David Koenig. He's a multiple graded-stakes winner who also is Grade 1-placed, including finishing third in the 2018 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.
“He's doing well,” said trainer Mike Maker. “There are worse Plan Bs. We expect him to run well as usual.”
In his only start at age 6, Somelikeithotbrown led most of the way before weakening to fifth in Belmont Park's Kingston for New York-breds.
“He ran OK,” Maker said, “got a little tired.”
Somelikeithotbrown is the 5-2 second choice in the Schuster's capacity field of 12. Grade 1-winner Ivar, making his first start since he was a late-running third in the Breeders' Cup Mile on turf at Del Mar last Nov. 6, is the 2-1 favorite. The top two choices are bookends, with Somelikeithotbrown breaking on the rail and Ivar drawing post 12.
Maker also has Lady Frosted, claimed for $62,500 in her last start, in the $100,000 Mari Hulman George for fillies and mares on dirt at 1 1/16 miles. Likewise, Spa City makes her debut in the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff for the Maker barn after being claimed for $80,000 by owners Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher.
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