Maker Establishes Churchill Downs Fall Meet Record for Wins

Nov 19, 2008 Gary Yunt

(November 19, 2008) – Trainer Mike Maker established a Churchill Downs Fall Meet record for victories Wednesday afternoon when One Eyed Joker won the eighth race for Maker’s 21^st triumph of the season.

            Maker, 39, broke the record with his 54^th starter of the 26-day meet that runs through Nov. 29. The previous record was established in 2003 when Dale Romans saddled 20 winners from 78 starters during the 27-day meet.

            Maker, a former assistant to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas who opened his own stable in 2003, never has won a Churchill Downs training title. After 18 days of the current meet, Maker owns a nine-victory advantage over his closest pursuer, Ken McPeek.

            One Eyed Joker, a 2 ½-length winner over Stratostar, gave owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey their 17^th victory of the meet, extending their Fall Meet record total.

One race later, Herman Van Den Broeck’s Hapitano pulled away to a 2 ¾-length victory over Stungbythestorm to win the featured $44,100 Make a Wish Foundation Purse.

Ridden by Jesus Castanon and trained by Ron Pellegrini, Hapitano covered the mile on a fast main track in 1:35.08 in turning back 10 foes.

A 4-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Hap returned $18.40, $7.80 and $5. Stungbythestorm, ridden by Shaun Bridgmohan, returned $9.40 and $6.20 and A.U. Miner, who was a nose back in third under Robby Albarado, paid $6.60 to show.

Albarado won four races on the 10-race card to narrow the gap, 40-31, between he and leading rider Julien Leparoux. Leparoux had a riding double.

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