Battaglia has rooting interest

After retiring from race-calling in March 2016, Mike Battaglia returned several times to call races from the Turfway Park booth, where he was the announcer for 43 years. Both visits came for the John Battaglia Memorial, a race named in honor of his late father, the general manager at the track in the 1970s, when Turfway was known as Latonia.

Although Mike Battaglia plans to be at Turfway on Friday evening for the $75,000 Battaglia Memorial, he said Tuesday that he does not plan to call it, leaving announcer Jimmy McNerney to handle the duties. His own fiercest critic, Battaglia was dissatisfied with his call of the race last year.

“I fired myself after the last call, and I think I made the right decision,” he said in a text.

Battaglia, who turns 69 this month, has another reason to step aside, being a co-owner of Dabo, who is starting in the race. He has ties to the horse from a partnership headed by Tom Hammond, with whom he worked during horse-racing telecasts at NBC Sports.

“I am really excited about that, and I don’t think I could concentrate on the rest of the field,” Battaglia texted.

Dabo, a 3-year-old gelding trained by Dale Romans, was purchased privately by West Point Thoroughbreds and Hammond’s Peacock Stable after winning his debut Aug. 2 at Arlington Park. Trailing by 15 lengths with a quarter-mile to race, he somehow managed to make up the difference and win the six-furlong race by a neck.

Dabo has raced twice since the acquisition, running seventh in the slop at Churchill Downs on Nov. 25 and fifth in a grass allowance at Gulfstream Park on Dec. 22 behind A Thread of Blue, who went on to win the Dania Beach Stakes last weekend at Gulfstream Park.

Dabo worked a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.20 on Monday at Gulfstream and now returns to race on a synthetic track. Turfway, like Arlington, has a Polytrack surface.

Maker has two for Risen Star

Somelikeithotbrown, the favorite for the Battaglia Memorial, is not the only 3-year-old grass runner trainer Mike Maker will test on a different surface this month. Maker intends to shift two-time turfstakes winner Henley’s Joy to dirt for owner Bloom Racing in the Feb. 16 Risen Star at Fair Grounds.

Although progeny of Henley’s Joy’s sire, Kitten’s Joy, often falter on dirt relative to their success on grass and synthetic surfaces, “there is really no significant turf race at this time, so now is the time to try the dirt,” Maker said.

Maker also has Dunph targeting the Risen Star. Dunph was last seen finishing third behind Long Range Toddy and Bankit in the Springboard Mile at Remington Park on Dec. 16.

Maker also intends to be active in the supporting stakes on the Risen Star card, pointing Hogy for the Colonel Power, a 5 1/2-furong turf sprint; Krewe Chief for the Grade 3 Mineshaft; and Markitoff and Sir Dudley Digges for the Fair Grounds Handicap, a 1 1/8-mile grass race.

Maker’s better grass marathoners are likely to remain in Florida. John B. Connally Turf Cup winner Bigger Picture and William L. McKnight Handicap one-two finishers Zulu Alpha and Soglio are under consideration for the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida at Gulfstream on March 2 and the Grade 2 Pan American there March 30. He expects to split them between the two races, and one or both could go on to the Grade 2 Elkorn at Keeneland on April 20.

Iva targets Beaumont Stakes

Iva, the winner of the Feb. 1 Cincinnati Trophy at Turfway, is being pointed toward the Grade 3 Beaumont at Keeneland on April 7, trainer Wesley Ward said.

The Beaumont, at seven furlongs and 184 feet, would mark the longest race for Iva. She twice won going five furlongs to begin her career before a runner-up finish in the six-furlong House Party at Gulfstream and her 1 1/4-length triumph in the 6 1/2-furlong Cincinnati Trophy. That victory earned her a 71 Beyer Speed Figure.

The next stakes race at Turfway for 3-year-old fillies is the $100,000 Bourbonette Oaks on March 9, a one-mile race that Ward is pondering for The Mackem Bullet, pending how she performs in the Battaglia.