Maker strong in Ky. Turf Cup

With Kentucky Downs in session and the Keeneland yearling sale starting Monday in Lexington, Ky., horse trainers and their automobiles will be in continuous motion over the next couple of weeks.

Few will be busier than Mike Maker. The two-time defending champion trainer at Kentucky Downs, he makes Louisville his home base, but his Lexus SUV will be hurtling up and down Interstates 65 and 64 as he looks to further his name with current and future trainees.

“It’s that time of year,” said Maker, the leading trainer each of the last two years at Kentucky Downs in southcentral Kentucky.

Over the two cards that open the five-day Kentucky Downs meet, Maker had 18 entries (nine for both Wednesday and Thursday), including top contenders in most of the stakes. But the stable muscles will really start to flex Saturday, when the richest race of the meet, the $600,000 Kentucky Turf Cup, highlights a card that will include three other stakes, each worth at least $350,000. (All non-claiming/starter races at Kentucky Downs include substantial bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-bred horses.)

Maker intended to enter four older horses for the Grade 3 Turf Cup, including Oscar Nominated, who also is entered in the Old Friends Stakes on Thursday. His other prospects for the 1 1/2-mile Turf Cup are Bigger Picture, Taghleeb, and Enterprising. Of those, Bigger Picture looms largest following a victory in the Grade 1 United Nations and in-money finishes in the Grade 2 Bowling Green and Grade 1 Sword Dancer for owner Three Diamonds Farm.

“We’ve had the Turf Cup in mind for him for quite a while,” Maker said.

Entries for Saturday were to be drawn Tuesday.

Maker won the Turf Cup the last two years with Da Big Hoss, one of the greatest claims in racing history. The 6-year-old gelding has been hampered this year by an ankle injury that did not require surgery, and owner Harvey Diamond and partners are looking for him to return to training soon.

Catalano comes full circle

Wayne Catalano has won more than 2,700 races since he switched from riding to training in 1983. One of those wins came with future Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom in a 2-year-old maiden race, while hundreds more came for owner Frank Calabrese, with whom Catalano has had a volatile off-and-on relationship the last two decades or so.

It will all come full circle for Catalano at Kentucky Downs on Thursday when Dreaming of J C makes his career debut in the third race. Dreaming of J C, a bay 2-year-old colt by Animal Kingdom, is one of three horses that Catalano is training for Calabrese since they reunited earlier this year.

“Funny, isn’t it?” said Catalano, who in 2013 set a stillstanding record for most wins by a trainer at a Kentucky Downs meet (10). “I’m good with all of it.”

Animal Kingdom, winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby and 2013 Dubai World Cup for Team Valor International and trainer Graham Motion, is off to a terrific start with his first crop of foals, now 2.

The other two Calabrese horses in the Catalano barn, Frank the Butcher and Dreaming of Jo Jo, both were produced by Dreaming of Anna, with whom Calabrese and Catalano teamed to win the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Storm Runner has new owners

Storm Runner was a whopping 159-1 when he finished second last month under apprentice Rogelio Miranda in his lone start, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race on the main track at Ellis Park. Team Valor founder Barry Irwin said the debut effort piqued his interest to the extent that he arranged the purchase of the 2-yearold Get Stormy colt on behalf of Team Valor and Gemstone Stables, and Storm Runner returns in the fifth race Thursday at Kentucky Downs.

Irwin said that one reason he bought Storm Runner was because he is bred to go long on grass.

“He was ridiculously wide, and the rider lost the whip,” Irwin said. “He showed raw talent. We bought him based on his pedigree.”

Storm Runner, now trained by Dale Romans, will be ridden by circuit newcomer Alex Canchari in the $130,000 maiden race. He is listed as the 9-2 second choice on the morning line.

Biancone back in Kentucky

Patrick Biancone will saddle Salutation for the second race Thursday, marking the trainer’s first starter in Kentucky in nearly a decade.

Biancone, who served a oneyear suspension in the infamous cobra venom case that unfolded in June 2007, was granted a conditional license last month by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Biancone, 65, has won with 101 of 912 starters (11 percent), all in other jurisdictions, since 2008. His last starter on this circuit was Her Majesty, ninth in the Raven Run at Keeneland in October 2007.

◗ Colonelsdarktemper, winner of the West Virginia Derby last month, remains on target for a run in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 23 at Parx Racing. Owned by the famed racecar driver A.J. Foyt Jr., the Colonel John colt has had two bullet drills for trainer Jinks Fires at Churchill Downs since returning to training.