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Zulu Alpha Retired to Old Friends

Grade I winner Zulu Alpha (Street Cry {Ire}–Zori, by A.P. Indy) has been scratched out of Saturday's GII Calumet Turf Cup and Kentucky Downs and will be retired from racing. The 8-year-old will take up residence at Old Friends.

“I'm going to scratch Zulu,” Hui told the KY Downs notes team. “He's going to be retired to Old Friends. There's not a whole lot that's physically wrong with him. After consultation with Mike this weekend, he just believes he will not be competitive at this level.”

Claimed by Hui and Ortiz for $80,000 out of a winning effort at Churchill Downs in September of 2018, Zulu Alpha won the GIII Sycamore S. in his first start for those connections and was subsequently transferred to Mike Maker. Capturing the GIII W.L. McKnight S.and GII Mac Diarmida S. at the start of 2019, the gelding took the GIII Kentucky Turf Cup S. later that season.

Scoring a career high with a win in the GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. in 2020, Zulu Alpha followed suit with asuccessful title defense in the Mac Diarmida and won the GII TVG Elkhorn S. two starts after that. Shelved after finishing third in the 2020 Kentucky Turf Cup last September, he was off the board in his two starts this year in the July 17 GIII Arlington S. and GI Mr. D. S. Aug. 14. Zulu Alpha retires with 12 wins from 37 starts and hit the board an additional 11 times, earning $2,269,084.

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Equibase Analysis: Tide Of The Sea Could Lead A Merry Chase In Calumet Turf Cup

The Grade 2, $1 million Calumet Turf Cup Stakes this Saturday at Kentucky Downs drew a full field of 12, plus four also-eligibles, all vying to win an automatic entry into the Breeders' Cup Turf in November.

Arklow, who won the race in 2018 and 2020, is back, as is 2019 Turf Cup winner Zulu Alpha. Channel Cat won the 2018 Dueling Grounds Derby on the course and has not run over it since but won the Grade 1 Man O'War Stakes in May. Arklow won the Grade 3 Louisville Stakes in May at this marathon 12 furlong trip but has not threatened in two similar races since then. Similarly, Zulu Alpha, who finished third behind Arklow last year, has run poorly in both starts in 2021.

Imperador most recently finished second in the Grade 1 United Nations Stakes at the distance of one mile and three-eighths but has never finished in the top three in two races at this distance. Bluegrass Parkway is one of five horses in the Turf Cup trained by Mike Maker (plus one of the four also-eligibles) and just won the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup Stakes at the distance of one mile and one-quarter but has never run this far. Then there's Tide of the Sea, another of the Maker trainees, who won the Grade 3 William L. McKnight Stakes in January and who could be the one in front from the start.

Fantasioso could be a factor in the Turf Cup as he finished second this past June in the Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup at the distance of two miles on turf. Similarly, Ajourneytofreedom (another trained by Maker) missed by a neck in the Grade 3 John B. Connally Stakes at the distance in January and is another who, if able to repeat his best effort in a stakes race similar to this one, could have a say in the outcome. Breakpoint won the Group 1 El Ensayo Stakes in his Chilean homeland last December. That race carried a $150,000 purse and is one of the biggest in South American racing so he could fit as a contender in this field.

Crossfirehurricane, Epic Bromance and Glynn County round out the main body of the field, while Artemus Eagle, Big Dreaming, Dynadrive and Time for Trouble are the also-eligibles who can run if any of the horses in the main body of the race withdraw.

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Main contenders:

Tide of the Sea moved from the barn of Bill Mott to Mike Maker's care between his starts in August, 2019 and June, 2020. Since then he has won three times and finished second four other times in 11 races. The best of those in terms of his ™ Equibase® Speed Figures was last October at Keeneland when, at the distance of the Turf Cup, Tide of the Sea led from start to finish to earn a 107 figure. Two races later Tide of the Sea won the William L. McKnight Stakes in January at the 12 furlong distance of this race, then three races later he led from the start and settled for second in the Grand Couturier Stakes on turf the Turf Cup distance.

The key to the most successful finishes for Tide of the Sea came when he was sent to the lead from the start, resulting in all three of his wins in the last year. Jockey Luis Saez, fresh off winning the Saratoga 2021 riding title, has ridden Tide of the Sea just once previously, in the Grand Couturier, when Saez was aggressive from the opening of the gate and a race in which although Tide of the Sea was passed late, he was beaten by Gufo, who went on to win the Grade 1 Sword Dancer Stakes four weeks later. In this year's Turf Cup, I expect Saez to be equally aggressive from the start, and with no other true “need the lead” type in the field, Tide of the Sea can post the mild upset to win this race.

Ajourneytofreedom and Glynn County both appear capable of winning if Tide of the Sea can't go all the way in front. They're both also trained by Mike Maker, with Glynn County owned by Three Diamonds Farm, who owns Tide of the Sea. The most recent race in which Ajourneytofreedom tried this marathon turf trip was in mid-July at Saratoga when, after relaxing in sixth (of seven) for the first mile and one-quarter, Ajourneytofreedom moved decisively from fifth, then to fourth, then to the lead, eventually winning by a neck. That effort earned a 111 ™ figure not far from his best, a 113 figure earned when missing by a neck in the similar John B. Connally Stakes in January. With the second leading jockey in all of North America, Irad Ortiz, Jr., getting aboard Ajourneytofreedom for the first time, if the horse can stay close to Tide of the Sea and Channel Cat in the early stages, he could repeat either of those efforts in representative races to win.

Glynn County also recently won at this mile and one-half turf trip, in June, with a similar effort to the one Ajourneytofreedom put forth in July. In that race, Glynn County sat in fourth in the early stages then rallied to win by a couple of lengths with a quick burst of speed. That effort only earned a 103 ™ figure which was exceeded two races later when the colt earned a career best 109 figure finishing third in the Mr. D Stakes (formerly the Arlington Million) at the shorter distance of a mile and one quarter. Back to the longer trip, Glynn County could be the one passing stablemate Tide of the Sea for the score.

Secondary contenders:

Dynadrive will need help from one or more horses withdrawing from the 12 horse main body of the field to run in the Turf Cup as he is on the also-eligible list, but he must be given some consideration if he does run. First or second in 11 of 17 races, Dynadrive joined the Maker barn last October via a $50,000 claim. His best efforts came in his last two starts when second then first, the latter of the two earning a 104 figure which can be improved upon as Jose Ortiz rides back following being in the saddle for the very first time. Although the win in August in his most recent race came at the distance of a mile and one quarter, Dynadrive is bred to handle this mile and one-half trip and is another who can lay close to the likely slow early pace and be in the picture at the wire.

Bluegrass Parkway just won the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup Stakes at Ellis Park, the same race Arklow used as a prep to win the Turf Cup in 2018. The effort earned Bluegrass Parkway a career best 105 figure and considering it was only the horse's fourth start since joining the powerful Maker barn and considering jockey Julien Leparoux rides him right back there's a chance he can run much better than his high odds will suggest is possible.

As to the three horses which may be favored by bettors, I feel they have less chance to win then their odds make it appear and for the most part I am going to take a stand against them winning. Arklow, who won this race in 2018 as a four year old and last year as a six year old (with a 116 figure), does not appear to be entering this year's Turf Cup in the same form, having finished sixth in the United Nations Stakes in July and seventh last month in the Del Mar Handicap. 2019 Turf Cup winner Zulu Alpha is now an eight year old, is winless since July of 2020 and has finished third, fifth and seventh in his three starts since then. However, it must be noted that the best of the three was in last year's Turf Cup where Zulu Alpha finished third with a 114 figure. Channel Cat, who won the Dueling Grounds Derby (one mile and five-sixteenths) as a three year old in 2018, has a bit more chance to win as compared to Arklow and Zulu Alpha as he won the Man O'War Stakes in May with a 113 figure. However, not only has he run poorly in two races since the Man O'War when finishing seventh and fourth, Channel Cat may not be as good as this mile and one-half distance as he is a one mile and three-eighths, with his record at this trip just 1-1-1 in seven starts.

The rest of the field, with their best ™ Equibase Speed Figures, is Breakpoint (CHI) (109), Crossfirehurricane (106), Epic Bromance (100), Fantasioso (ARG) (115) and Imperador (ARG) (114), plus also-eligibles Artemus Eagle (101), Big Dreaming (106) and Time for Trouble (103)

Main Win Contenders (in probability/preference order):
Tide of the Sea
Ajourneytofreedom
Glynn County
Dynadrive

Calumet Turf Cup Stakes – Grade 2
Race 9 at Kentucky Downs
Saturday, Sept. 11 – Post Time 5:44 PM E.T.
One Mile and One-Half on Turf
Three Years Olds and Upward
Purse: $1 Million

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Maker Fully Loaded For Kentucky Downs Turf Cup

As usual, Mike Maker, the all-time leading trainer at Kentucky Downs, is very well-armed for the $1 million, Grade 2 Calumet Turf Cup Saturday.

Maker is scheduled to saddle five of the 12 horses in the 1 1/2-mile race. While it is already a personal best for him in the race, it is possible he could have half the field if Dynadrive draws in from the also-eligible list. This will be the eighth-straight year that Maker, 52, has had two or more starters in one of the track's premier races, which he has won a record four times. He has had at least one horse finish in the money seven straight years.

The Calumet Turf Cup, one of the five graded stakes on Saturday's program, is a Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” race and will be broadcast live on NBC.

Maker has made it clear that he points for this race and will start as many runners as he can. He has built a solid reputation for developing horses – many of whom he has claimed – that can go long on the grass.

“I have a lot of horses that can go a mile and a half on the grass, there are limited opportunities and this purse is always lucrative,” he said.

Maker said he developed his ability with distance-loving turf horses earlier in his career when he worked for breeder-owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey.

“I had a lot of offspring by Kitten's Joy,” he said, naming the Ramsey's prominent turf stallion. “You have to play the hand you're dealt.”

According to Equibase stats, Maker has saddled a record 22 starters in the Turf Cup and his purse earnings of $2,225,240 is a record, nearly $1 million ahead of Brad Cox. He quietly served notice that he might do well in the race by finishing second with his first starter, Stream of Gold, in 2008. Since 2014 he has had at least two runners. Twice he has sent out four runners. In 2018, his horses finished second, third, fourth and fifth. His record in the race from the 22 starts is 4-2-4.

This year, Maker has Three Diamonds Farm's Tide of the Sea in post 4; Michael Ryan's Bluegrass Parkway in post 6; Paradise Farm's and David Staudacher's Ajourneytofreedom in 8; Three Diamonds' Glynn County in 9 and Michael Hui's 8-year-old Zulu Alpha, who won in 2019 and was third last year, in 11.

“Glynn County was a Kitten's Joy and only had a couple of starts when we got him,” Maker said. “He's a nice horse and I think you're going to hear a lot of him in the future. He ran well at Arlington (third in the G1 Mr. D). I think he's one of my better chances.

“Tide of the Sea is an English Channel who was bought out of the sale. Bluegrass Parkway was sent to me with these type of races in mind. The first we ran him I think was a mile and three-eighths race he won, a conditioned allowance race. Ajourneytofreedom was bred for these type of races and that's why we claimed him. Obviously, Zulu Alpha doesn't need any explanation.”

All five of Maker's runners are stakes veterans and Tide of the Sea and Zulu Alpha are graded stakes winners.

Zulu Alpha, a Grade 1 winner and $2.27 million-earner, has not hit the board in his two starts in 2021, but Maker said that is too small of a sample to judge him. In the Mr. D at Arlington Park on Aug. 14, he was a non-factor.

“It was slow paced and didn't suit him,” Maker said. “We're going to cross it out and bring him to the track he loves. I think it should be a strong pace Saturday with Tide of the Sea and Channel Cat.”

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Somelikeithotbrown Among Top Choices For Labor Day’s Mint Million At Kentucky Downs

Louisville's Harvey Diamond and his partners in Skychai Racing will finally run their stable star Somelikeithotbrown at Kentucky Downs, with the multiple graded-stakes winner among the favorites for Monday's $1 million, Grade 3 WinStar Mint Million.

Last year's winner, Juddmonte Farm's Flavius, also is among the 11 older horses entered Tuesday for the Labor Day featured attraction, previously known as the Tourist Mile. The Chad Brown-trained Flavius won Saratoga's restricted Lure Stakes in his last start.

With the mile stakes enjoying Grade 3 status for the first time in 2021, the purse was increased from $750,000 and the name changed to reflect that amount and as a shout to The Mint Gaming Hall at Kentucky Downs.

Diamond, Skychai co-managing partner Jim Shircliff and frequent partner David Koenig of Sand Dollar Stable all love Kentucky Downs. Not only do they like to have a good time in a festive outdoor atmosphere at the races, but they won the $1 million Calumet Turf Cup in 2015 and 2016 with Da Big Hoss.

However, Somelikeithotbrown previously has raced in the summer at Saratoga, where he's eligible for New York-bred races and his owners earn additional incentives as the horse's breeder. The Big Apple has been very good to Somelikeithotbrown, including winning Saratoga's Grade 2 Bernard Baruch and Belmont's $150,000 Mohawk for New York-breds last year, along with an eight-length maiden victory and a pair of seconds in Grade 3 stakes as a 2-year-old in 2018.

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund is channeling millions of dollars into purse supplements at the six-date FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs for horses born in the commonwealth and by a stallion standing in the state. But the stakes' base purses — for which all horses can compete — alone would rank among some of the most lucrative in the country.

So while Somelikeithotbrown isn't eligible to compete for the $450,000 KTDF component of the Mint Million, “$550,000 isn't exactly chopped liver,” Diamond said. “It just seemed like the proper spot for him.”

Somelikeithotbrown last ran when a close second to Set Piece in Churchill Downs' Grade 2 Wise Dan on June 26.

“I thought he tried really hard all the way to the wire,” said Diamond, a retired occupational physician. “That race was a mile and a sixteenth around two turns. This will be a one-turn race, so we're looking forward to giving it a shot down there. We think he's a really nice horse, and he doesn't owe us a thing. So let's see how he runs at Kentucky Downs. Hotbrown doesn't need to take his track with him. He's won at multiple tracks, and he's good at the distance. So we're looking forward to running him at this European-style course. We love to come down there. We're excited the turf course has been renovated and can't wait to see it. And it's in an outdoor atmosphere that will fit with our COVID restrictions.”

The cleverly named Somelikeithotbrown is from the first foal crop sired by 2008 Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown in his first breeding season in New York. His dam is the Tapit mare Marilyn Monroan, her name a play on her gray color, who raced for Skychai's affiliated Hot Pink Stables and Sand Dollar. Overall he's 7-5-2 in 20 starts, earning $899,838.

Somelikeithotbrown spent the summer in Louisville at trainer Mike Maker's Trackside training center base, where he has uncorked four very strong workouts. Jose Ortiz, the 2018-2019 Kentucky Downs meet titlist, has the mount and is skipping closing day at Saratoga.

Alluding to bypassing Saratoga's $250,000 Albany for New York-breds to run in the Mint Million, Maker said the New York-bred turf horses “are no cupcakes, either. So, we figured with the difference in the purses, we might as well stay home where he's doing well. He's run on hard ground, yielding ground and performed well at different places. I do like the one turn for him.”

As Kentucky Downs' all-time winningest trainer with 63 victories, Maker's 356 starters also are a track record. Those horses have earned $8,259,886 at the all-grass meet, with no one else close.

Maker is coming off a huge meet at Saratoga, with 24 wins and $1.97 million in purse earnings and still having horses for that meet's final week. But it's a sign of how important the Kentucky Downs' meet is to the trainer that he's back in Kentucky. He has nine horses entered in six races on the Labor Day card.

That includes another Mint Million entrant in Michael Hui's Monarchs Glen, a $62,500 claim who in his last three starts won a second-level allowance race and Indiana Grand's Jon B. Schuster Memorial and finished second by a neck in the West Virginia Speaker's Cup.

Other contenders in the Mint Million include Chicago invader Betwithbothhands, who earned a fees-paid berth in the race by virtue of winning the stakes prep at Ellis Park; last year's Grade 2 Del Mar Derby winner Pixelate; and Bizzee Channel, who won the Grade 3 Arlington Stakes before finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Mr. D (formerly the Arlington Million).

Skychai, in partnership with Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher, also is running Saratoga maiden-winner Kiss the Sky in Monday's $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile. As a Kentucky-bred son of Twirling Candy, the Maker-trained Kiss the Sky will compete for the whole purse.

“He's shown some ability with that Saratoga win,” Diamond said.

The Kentucky Downs Juvenile also drew a field of 11, including the Kenny McPeek-trained Tiz the Bomb, who romped by 14 1/4 lengths in a mile maiden race that came off the grass at Ellis Park. Larry Rivelli will send out 2-for-2 Nobals, who won the Arlington-Washington Futurity winner this past Saturday. Mark Casse brings up On Thin Ice, an impressive debut winner on grass, up from Gulfstream Park for the stakes. Maker also entered the maiden Fan the Fire in the stakes.

Brad Cox has a strong 1-2 punch in the $500,000 Aristocrat Juvenile Fillies, running Turnerloose and Yin Yang, both Ellis Park debut winners at a mile on grass. The Randy Morse-trained Verylittlecents, winner of the RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Juvenile Fillies, makes her first start on turf in the mile stakes, which attracted a field of ten 2-year-old fillies.

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