Just when it was thought that Mike Maker couldn’t claim another horse and turn him into a long-distance stakes winner in the field, the trainer does it again.
Maker repeated the feat on May 18 at Churchill Downs When Sugoi Last month’s $50,000 claim by Peter Proscia’s Paradise Farms and David Staudacher upset the $241,250 Louisville Stakes (G3T).
.@kaitlinefree caught up with Louisville S. (G3) winning trainer Michael Maker, who recently acquired Sugoi. pic.twitter.com/9bIv23tgL4
– TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) May 19, 2024
Jockey Julien Leparoux also played a key role in Saturday night’s victory, slowing down at the 1/2-mile Louisville with his front-running horse. The scores: 50.25, 1:15.81, 1:41.12 and 2:05.81 left Sugoi with enough money to return to the average bid from the runner-up Strong tide and a late rally from the show’s finale Gray Witch . He won by 1 1/4 lengths and timed 2:30.37 on hard courts.
Popular Bold Act is a quarter wide.
Maker’s two other beginnings, Quadra Island And gun town has been replaced.
Maker said he tried to reclaim Sugoi a year or two ago but was unsuccessful. Then, last month at Keeneland, he tried again, taking it Karakontie raced for the $50,000 prize, which he won by a neck. He followed him all winter and recorded how he “refused to give up.”
“We really wanted to stretch him out, get him over the top,” the two-time champion Louisville coach said.
Leparoux won Louisville for the fourth time.
Maker said the $600,000 United Nations Shares (G2T) on July 20 at Monmouth Park is Sugoi’s summer goal.
Videotapes: Louisville S. (G3T)
