Trainer Bios

Mike Maker

Born: Feb. 7, 1969, in Garden City, Michigan

Record at Keeneland

Total Wins: 251

Stakes Wins: 16

Career Firsts

First Grade 1 Win: 2009 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Oak Tree at Santa Anita with Furthest Land

First Stakes Win: 2004 Labor Day Handicap at Mountaineer Park with Freefourinternet

First Graded Stakes Win: 2004 Hawthorne Gold Cup (G2) at Hawthorne with Freefourinternet

First Career Win: April 28, 1993, at Detroit Race Course with Rauros

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 exceed $177 million with 3,475 wins through Dec. 17, 2024.

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.