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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Maker Talks Next Starts For Cross Border, Somelikeithotbrown

Three Diamonds Farm's Cross Border continued his dominance on the Saratoga turf with a decisive 1 1/4-length score in Saturday's $250,000 Grade 2 Bowling Green at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The 7-year-old New York-bred tracked in third position as Channel Maker and Channel Cat – fellow progeny of English Channel – set the early pace over the inner turf. Luis Saez tipped Cross Border out a path for the stretch run and the dark bay ridgling responded with a powerful turn of foot to secure the win and a 100 Beyer.

Trained by Mike Maker, who tops the Spa trainer standings with 12 wins heading into Sunday's card, Cross Border boasts a record of 7-6-1-0 on the Saratoga turf, including four wins on the inner course.

“The race shaped up like it looked on paper,” Maker said. “We had a great trip and we were fortunate enough to get the job done. He came back super.”

Bred in the Empire State by Berkshire Stud and B.D. Gibbs, Cross Border went 3-for-3 over the local turf in 2019, led by an open allowance score.

Last year, Cross Border stepped things up a notch, winning the state-bred Lubash ahead of a win in the Bowling Green by disqualification. He completed his 2020 Spa campaign with a runner-up effort to Channel Maker in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer.

Maker said Cross Border will now target a return engagement in the $750,000 Grade 1 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer on August 28. The 1 1/2-mile turf contest for 4-year-olds and up is a Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” qualifier to the $4 million Longines Turf in November at Del Mar.

Maker said he is hoping to send out another New York-bred for a stakes win this summer when he saddles multiple graded stakes winner Somelikeithotbrown in the $150,000 West Point presented by Trustco Bank, a 1 1/16-mile test for state-breds 3-years-old and up on August 27.

“We have another New York-bred, Somelikeithotbrown, who will show up in the West Point and Cross Border will come back in the Sword Dancer,” Maker said.

Skychai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable's Somelikeithotbrown has made three starts on the Saratoga turf, including a maiden win ahead of a runner-up effort in the 2018 Grade 3 With Anticipation. Last year, the talented bay, bred in the Empire State by Hot Pink Stables and Sand Dollar Stables, won the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch in gate-to-wire fashion.

Maker will also look to secure a Grade 1 win later in the meet with Three Diamonds Farm's Kentucky-bred Army Wife in the $600,000 Alabama, a 10-furlong test for sophomore fillies on August 21.

By Declaration of War, Army Wife will be in search of a graded-stakes hat trick following scores in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan in May at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., and the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks on July 2 at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa.

Maker, who is four wins clear of Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher heading into Day 14 of the summer meet, credited his staff for the strong start to the meet.

“We have a lot of horses that fit the book well and we're fortunate enough to get some wins,” Maker said. “I know we're on top but we've got a long way to go. It would be great for the staff [to win the meet] and they deserve it.”

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Fancy Liquor Keeps Geroux’s Hot Streak Alive In American Turf

Florent Geroux continues to have a big weekend at Churchill Downs, following up his five-win Kentucky Oaks day with a victory aboard Sky Chai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable's homebred Fancy Liquor in the Grade 2 American Turf.

The 3-year-old son of Lookin at Lucky entered the $500,000 race off a victory in the listed Caesars Stakes at Indiana Grand, and was sent off as the third choice of seven runners at odds of 9-2. Fancy Liquor, trained by Mike Maker like third-place finisher Field Pass, closed from well off the pace to best Taishan by a half length on the wire, completing 1 1/16 miles over firm turf in 1:42.83.

“I wasn't expecting what we got, but it worked out,” Maker said. “So I'm very pleased. Field Pass is a stakes winner over this course and didn't quite run his race at Saratoga. Tyler (Gaffalione) didn't feel like he handled the softer going today but still ran a good race. Flo said he was loaded, on the gallop out and everything.”

On or near the pace in each of his five lifetime starts thus far, Fancy Liquor wasn't able to keep pace with the early speed in the American Turf. Geroux found himself at least a dozen lengths off the leaders entering the backstretch, but the French veteran didn't panic, guessing that the frontrunners would tire and come back to him.

There were three across the track in the heated early pace battle: American Butterfly on the rail, Sugoi between horses, and 6-5 favorite Smooth Like Strait on the outside. They blasted through early fractions of :23.04 and :46.48, pulling away by about eight lengths from 9-5 second choice Field Pass. It was another four or so lengths back to Fancy Liquor in fifth.

American Butterfly dropped out of the race nearing the far turn, and Sugoi quickly followed suit. By that point, Field Pass had started making up ground on the outside and took over the lead from Smooth Like Strait. Those two battled for several strides before Smooth Like Strait conceded, but the effort left Field Pass vulnerable as Fancy Liquor and Geroux swept up the middle of the course in the final eighth of a mile.

Fancy Liquor grabbed the lead and refused to let Taishan by in the final yards, crossing the wire a half-length the best. Field Pass held on to finish third over Smooth Like Strait.

Bred in Kentucky by his owners, Fancy Liquor is out of the 21-time winning Secret Romeo mare Brandys Secret. The colt won on debut at Gulfstream Park in February of this year, and finished third behind Field Pass next out on the synthetic at Turfway Park in the Jeff Ruby Steaks. Fancy Liquor was again best by Field Pass two starts later when third in the G3 Transylvania, but got away from his stablemate to win the Caesars Stakes in Indiana in his final prep for the American Turf. Overall, Fancy Liquor's record stands at 3-1-2 from six starts for earnings of over $450,000.

“This horse seems to be still learning,” Geroux said. “He broke really well but the horses in front of me were going really fast. He's shown in the past he's run well on the lead but he doesn't necessarily have to have the lead. The race I rode aboard him at Keeneland (the Grade III Transylvania) he came from just off the pace and we got beat by Field Pass that day but I know (Fancy Liquor) was still learning and getting better. Even back in the Jeff Ruby Steaks, where he beat us there, too, (Fancy Liquor) ran a really solid race.”

 

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