2021 Maker's Mark Mile Contenders & Odds
Sacred Life and Raging Bull Top 25th Maker's Mark Mile
Peter Brant's Grade 1 winner Raging Bull (FR) tops a field of nine older runners entered for the Grade 1, $300,000 Makers Mark Mile Stakes to be run over the Keeneland Race Course turf course on Friday, April 2021.
The Maker's Mark Mile will go as the afternoon's ninth race with a 5:30 p.m. post time. First post time is 1:05 p.m.
2021 Maker's Mark Mile Field & Odds
Race 9 at Keeneland on Friday, April 9 - Post 5:30 PM
| Entry | Horse | ML Odds | Jockey | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Get Smokin | 8-1 | Junior Alvarado 120 Lbs |
Thomas Bush |
| 2 | Hit the Road | 4-1 | Florent Geroux 123 Lbs |
Dan Blacker |
| 3 | Somelikeithotbrown | 6-1 | John Velazquez 118 Lbs |
Michael Maker |
| 4 | Sacred Life (FR) | 4-1 | Javier Castellano 118 Lbs |
Chad Brown |
| 5 | Darain (GB) | 8-1 | Luis Saez 118 Lbs |
Brad Cox |
| 6 | Ride a Comet | 6-1 | Tyler Gaffalione 118 Lbs |
Mark Casse |
| 7 | Flying Scotsman | 30-1 | Corey Lanerie 118 Lbs |
Jack Sisterson |
| 8 | Raging Bull (FR) | 7-2 | Irad Ortiz, Jr. 118 Lbs |
Chad Brown |
| 9 | Field Pass | 8-1 | Joel Rosario 118 Lbs |
Michael Maker |
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Trained by Chad Brown, Raging Bull will be making his 2021 debut after concluding last year with a 10th-place finish in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) Presented by PDJF. A two-time Grade 1 winner, Raging Bull finished third beaten a neck in last year's Maker's Mark Mile and returned in the fall to finish second in the Shadwell Turf Mile (G1).
Irad Ortiz Jr. will have the mount and break from post eight.
Brown also will send out Sacred Life (FR) for the ownership of Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Wonder Stable and Bethlehem Stables.
Fourth in the $1 million Turf Classic (G1) at Churchill Downs last September in his most recent start, Sacred Life will be ridden by Javier Castellano and break from post four.
Invading from California and riding a four-race win streak is Hit the Road, winner of the Frank Kilroe Mile (G1) in his most recent start.
Trained by Dan Blacker for the partnership of D K Racing, Radley Equine, Taste of Victory Stables, Rick Gold, Tony Maslowski and Dave Odmark, Hit the Road will break from post two and be ridden by Florent Geroux, who was aboard for the Kilroe victory.
The field for the Maker's Mark Mile, with riders and weights from the rail out, is: Get Smokin (Junior Alvarado, 120 pounds), Hit the Road (Geroux, 123), Somelikeithotbrown (John Velazquez, 118), Sacred Life (FR) (Castellano, 118), Darain (GB) (Luis Saez, 118), Ride a Comet (Tyler Gaffalione, 118), FlyingScotsman (Corey Lanerie, 118), Raging Bull (FR) (Irad Ortiz Jr., 118) and Field Pass (Joel Rosario, 118).
Get Smokin Hoping To Follow In Get Stormy Hoofprints
Ten years ago, trainer Tom Bush recorded his first Grade 1 victory when Get Stormy rolled to a 2¾-length victory in the Maker's Mark Mile (G1), a margin that stands as the largest in the race's history.
On Friday, Bush will shoot for a second victory in the race with the Mary Abeel Sullivan Revocable Trust's Get Smokin, a 4-year-old gelding by Get Stormy.
"He sure has been special for us, and it would be great to get another Grade 1 for Get Stormy at Keeneland," Bush said Tuesday morning after watching Get Smokin return to the barn from his initial trip over the main track.
A homebred for Mary Sullivan's Sullimar Stable, Get Stormy was a Keeneland regular from 2009-2012, winning the Bryan Station (G3) at 3, placing fourth and second in the 2010 and 2011 Shadwell Turf Mile (G1), respectively, and finishing fourth in the 2012 Maker's Mark Mile. In his career, Get Stormy earned more than $1.6 million and won seven graded stakes, three of them Grade 1s.
Like his sire, Get Smokin features a prominent blaze and figures to be prominent coming out of the gate.
"He will probably be on the pace," Bush said. "He sat off another horse at Tampa (when he won the Tampa Bay-G3). It was nice to see that dimension."
The victory at Tampa was the second graded stakes score for Get Smokin, who led all the way in last fall's Hill Prince (G2) at Belmont Park before closing 2020 with a fourth-place finish in the Hollywood Derby (G1) in which he was beaten less than a length.
Bush nearly recorded a second Maker's Mark Mile victory in 2019 when Clyde's Image, also a son of Get Stormy, finished second in the race at 46-1.
"I think this year's race is deeper than the one `Clyde' was in," Bush said of Clyde's Image, who finished third at 27-1 behind eventual Horse of the Year Bricksand Mortar in his next start in the Old Forester Turf Classic (G1) at Churchill Downs.
"He (Get Smokin) would have to do extremely well (in the Maker's Mark Mile)," Bush said of coming back in three weeks in the Old Forester Turf Classic. "The mile and an eighth is right at his limit."
Before Bush saddles Get Smokin on Friday, he has a trip planned for Thursday to nearby Crestwood Farm.
"Am I going to go see Get Stormy? Absolutely," Bush said. "I go see him every time I am here."
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