Mike Maker
Record at Keeneland
Career Firsts
Starters in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes
Year |
Horse |
Finish |
2019 |
Somelikeithotbrown |
4th |
2018 |
California Night |
10th |
2016 |
Twizz |
14th |
2015 |
Pepper Roani |
8th |
2014 |
Harry’s Holiday |
13th |
2013 |
Fear the Kitten |
5th |
2012 |
Hansen |
2nd |
2012 |
Gung Ho |
3rd |
2011 |
Twinspired |
2nd |
2011 |
Joes Blazing Aaron |
6th |
2010 |
Stately Victor |
Won |
2007 |
Love Dubai |
7th
|
At Keeneland
Six leading trainer titles: 2008 Spring, 2013 Spring and Fall, 2016 Spring, 2017 Fall, 2019 Fall.
Holds the Spring Meet record of 25 wins set in April 2013.
First Keeneland win came during the 2004 Spring Meet.
Grade 1 wins are the 2010 Toyota Blue Grass with 40-1 longshot Stately Victor, the 2012 Breeders’ Futurity with Joha and the 2013 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Kitten's Dumplings.
Won the 2020 TVG Elkhorn (G2) with Zulu Alpha and the Kentucky Utilities Transylvania (G3) with Field Pass on closing day of the five-day Summer Meet.
Career
Breeders’ Cup wins (3): 2009 Dirt Mile with Furthest Land; 2011 Juvenile with Hansen; 2020 Juvenile Turf with Fire At Will.
North American career earnings exceeding $160 million with 3,272 wins through Nov. 28, 2023.
3,000th win came Aug. 5, 2002, when Palatial Times won the fifth race at Ellis Park.
Recorded 2,000th win on Nov. 30, 2017, when Tomahawk Kitten won the first race at Turfway Park.
Posted career win 1,000 on March 16, 2013, at Fair Grounds with Magical Season.
Trained 2011 champion 2-year-old male Hansen.
Click here for his Equibase career record.
Background
Mike became involved in racing because his father, the late George Maker, was a trainer in Michigan. Mike cleaned stalls and walked hots, and he exercised horses when he became a teenager.
After training on his own in Michigan, Maker went to work for D. Wayne Lukas’ Midwest division at Churchill Downs and Lukas assistant Dallas Stewart. He started as an exercise rider then became barn foreman and an assistant trainer. When Stewart departed in 1997, Mike replaced him. He was ready to go back out on his own in 2003. He is a leading trainer throughout Kentucky.