Maker's Mark Mile | Horse Racing Free Tips

Arkansas Derby, Keeneland Grade 1’s Highlight TVG’s Weekend Coverage

The road to the Kentucky Derby will run through Arkansas this weekend and TVG will be broadcasting live from Oaklawn Park with full coverage of the $1 million Arkansas Derby as the undefeated Concert Tour puts his perfect record on the line. There will also be expanded coverage of Keeneland's Spring Meet which features a pair of Grade 1 events this weekend – the $300,000 Maker's Mark Mile (G1) on Friday and the $300,000 Coolmore (G1) Jenny Wiley on Saturday.

TVG's Britney Eurton, Matt Carothers and Caton Bredar will be live from Oaklawn Park with insights and analysis throughout the thirteen-race card. The Arkansas Derby (GI) offers 100-40-20-10 qualifying points to the top four finishers and has drawn a field of six including two contenders for trainer Bob Baffert who saddled Nadal to victory in this race last year. Rebel Stakes (G2) winner Concert Tour, undefeated from three starts, is a homebred for Gary and Mary West and will have Joel Rosario aboard. His rivals will include stablemate Hozier, the runner-up in the Rebel Stakes with Martin Garcia in the irons.

Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) winner and Eclipse Award winning sprinter Whitmore will get a rematch with C Z Rocket in the $500,000 Count Fleet Handicap (G3) after a narrow defeat in the $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes in March. Whitmore, trained by Ron Moquett, will be making his fifth appearance in the Count Fleet Handicap (G3) and has won it three times. Ricardo Santana, Jr. will be aboard.

Todd Schrupp, Simon Bray, Joaquin Jaime, Caleb Keller, Gabby Gaudet and Scott Hazelton will be broadcasting live from Keeneland with exclusive interviews, expert analysis and insights throughout the star-studded weekend of racing. The featured event of Friday's ten-race card is the $300,000 Maker's Mark Mile (G1) which has drawn a contentious field of nine turf specialists including Raging Bull (FR), the 7-2 morning line favorite for Chad Brown. Owned by Peter Brant, the Grade-1 winning millionaire has been freshened since a tenth-place finish in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) and will be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr.

There will also be Kentucky Derby points at stake on Saturday in the $200,000 Lexington Stakes (G3) with 20-8-4-2 qualifying points allocated to the top four finishers. The race has drawn a field of ten including Proxy who will be trying to break through and earn his first graded stakes victory for recent Dubai World Cup (G1) winning trainer Michael Stidham. The Godolphin-homebred was last seen finishing fourth in the Louisiana Derby (G1).

Fillies and mares will take center stage on Saturday at Keeneland in the $300,000 Coolmore Jenny Wiley (G1) which has attracted a field of six contenders. Micheline, a homebred daughter of Bernardini for Godolphin, will try to earn her first Grade 1 win and was last seen taking the Hillsborough Stakes (G2) at Tampa Bay Downs. Both she and Lexington Stakes (G3) Proxy are offspring of graded stakes-winning millionaire mare Panty Raid.

TVG's Mike Joyce, Christina Blacker and Dave Weaver will be reporting live from Santa Anita with full coverage of the nine-race card. The featured race is a one-mile allowance/optional claiming race with a competitive field of nine including graded stakes winner Grammer who will be returning to action for the first time since the 2020 Travers Stakes (G1) for trainer Bob Baffert.

Fans of international racing can also tune in for the action from Royal Randwick for Championship Day 1 featuring the $2 million Australian Derby (G1) and the $3 million Doncaster Mile (G1). Jason Witham will be anchoring the Australian coverage Friday night.

In addition to racing from Keeneland, Oaklawn and Santa Anita, TVG will feature racing from Gulfstream Park, Aqueduct and more. Fans can tune in on TVG, TVG2 and the Watch TVG app which is available on Amazon Fire, Roku and connected Apple TV devices.

The post Arkansas Derby, Keeneland Grade 1’s Highlight TVG’s Weekend Coverage appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘Really Good Horse’ Hit The Road Ships East For Friday’s Maker’s Mark Mile

In 2013, in his second year of training on his own, Dan Blacker saddled four runners during Keeneland's Spring Meet.

“I didn't have the right horses then,” the 39-year-old Blacker said Thursday, the morning after he arrived here with what would qualify as a “right horse” in Hit the Road. The Grade 1 winner looms as one of the favorites for Friday's 33rd running of the $300,000 Maker's Mark Mile (G1).

Owned by the partnership of D K Racing, Radley Equine, Taste of Victory Stables, Rick Gold, Tony Maslowski and Dave Odmark, Hit the Road galloped on the main track Thursday.

A Keeneland sales graduate, Hit the Road brings a four-race win streak into the Maker's Mark Mile. That skein includes a victory in the Thunder Road (G3), which gave Blacker his first graded stakes triumph, and a narrow win in the Frank Kilroe Mile (G1) for Blacker's initial Grade 1 tally.

“He's a really good horse. He's a Grade 1 winner and there is not much better than that,” Blacker said.

The Maker's Mark Mile represents the first venture outside California for Hit the Road.

“A couple things I am looking for is to see how he handles the ship, and I am doing my anti-rain dance,” Blacker said. “I would prefer for it to be firm (turf) tomorrow.”

Heavy rain is forecast for Lexington beginning Thursday afternoon and going until midnight.

Blacker said Hit the Road likely would return to his home base at Santa Anita following Friday's race and he would not consider the $1 million Old Forester Turf Classic (G1) at 1 1/8 miles May 1 at Churchill Downs.

“My gut feeling is that he is a miler,” Blacker said. “Most likely we'd wait for the ($500,000) Shoemaker Mile (G1) on Memorial Day (May 25). If I did (run him) a mile and eighth, it would be at Santa Anita.”

Florent Geroux, who was aboard for the victory in the Kilroe, has the mount Friday.

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Keeneland Maker’s Mark Bottle Fundraiser to Benefit LexArts, Isaac Murphy Memorial Garden

This year, the annual release of a commemorative Maker's Mark Bourbon bottle in partnership with Keeneland will benefit LexArts, greater Lexington's premier cultural development, advocacy, and fundraising organization, to support its initiatives at the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden in Lexington. Murphy was a Hall of Fame jockey who remains the only rider to win the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks and Clark H. in the same year (1884). The Art Garden is the first park in the U.S. to honor African American jockeys, who were the earliest Black professional athletes.

For the first time, the fundraiser will feature three distinct bottles, each with its own label featuring the work of artists Sandra Oppegard, Andre Pater, or Tyler Robertson. The bottles are all pre-signed by the artist who created each label along with Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin, Maker's Mark Managing Director Rob Samuels, and one of three active Hall of Fame jockeys who have won the GI Maker's Mark Mile S. at Keeneland multiple times: Javier Castellano, Edgar Prado, and John Velazquez.

The three bottles will go on sale Friday, Apr. 2. This begins a three-year series benefiting LexArts initiatives, with the same three artists creating new labels each year for the commemorative release.

“To have the immeasurable support of these two iconic brands, Keeneland and Maker's Mark, is meaningful in so many ways for LexArts and our entire arts community,” said Ame Sweetall, LexArts President and CEO. “The support of the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden this partnership will further engage and enrich the East End community and build upon the early work of those who made the art garden a reality more than ten years ago.”

The post Keeneland Maker’s Mark Bottle Fundraiser to Benefit LexArts, Isaac Murphy Memorial Garden appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Dual-Surface Colt War Of Will Likely To Make Final Career Start In Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile

Though War of Will has campaigned exclusively on the turf in 2020, including a victory in the Grade 1 Maker's Mark Mile in July, the 4-year-old son of War Front will return to the dirt next month at Keeneland in what is likely to be his final career start.

According to bloodhorse.com, trainer Mark Casse is planning to enter Gary Barber's colt in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 7.

“It would be nice—he's already a grade 1 winner on the turf this year—to win another grade 1 on the dirt,” Casse told bloodhorse.com. “This will probably be his last start I would say before he retires to stud.”

War of Will will stand at Claiborne Farm for the 2021 season.

As a 3-year-old, War of Will won the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes, the G2 Risen Star, and the G3 Lecomte, while also placing third in the G1 Pennsylvania Derby. He'd run on turf as a 2-year-old, finishing second in the G1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine and fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

Most recently, War of Will finished third in the G1 Woodbine Mile. Overall, the colt's record stands at 5-1-3 from 17 starts with earnings of $1,871,803.