Saratoga Q & A With Mike Maker

[Wandering Eyes]

Trainer Mike Maker is a man of few words. Really, he is. Don't take it personally. The 56-year-old is just not naturally blabby. The TDN's Tim Wilkin sat down with him in his office on the backstretch at Saratoga Race Course, and found that Maker has some things to say. A former assistant to the late, great D. Wayne Lukas (you know there are stories there), Maker has a favorite horse he has trained, a favorite sports team, and a definitive answer on what actor would play him in a movie on his life. Here is the Saratoga Q&A.

 

TDN: You have a reputation of not saying much. You've heard that, I'm sure.

Mike Maker: Oh yeah.

 

TDN: What is your answer to that?

MM: It's my pedigree (smiles).

 

TDN: But you do have things to say.

MM:  I joke around. Sometimes I have a lot of things going on. I'm quiet.

 

TDN: Have you always been a quiet guy?

MM: Yup. My father was quiet. His philosophy was 'don't open your mouth too much and people won't know how stupid you are' (smiles).

 

TDN: Some people might think it's aloofness. It's not like you are ignoring people, right?

MM: No. Not at all.

 

TDN: What is a long answer for you?

MM: Sometimes David Woods (a cameraman at Gulfstream Park and Churchill Downs) and I will joke when we do interviews: 'how many words do you want me to say?'

 

TDN: Really. What are some of the numbers you have come up with?

MM: A couple times it was one or two. Or seven- or eight-word answers.

 

TDN: So, you have a little bit of fun with it (not fun for the writers).

MM: Oh yeah.

 

TDN: In your career, you have won a lot of training titles in Kentucky. Last year here, you tied for second with Todd (Pletcher) even though Chad Brown ran away with it. What is your secret to training horses?

MM: Not much of a secret. I just try to enter the horses in the best race possible. It's not always possible. I just try to place them well and take care of them well. Not really rocket science.

 

TDN: Favorite horse you have ever trained.

MM: I guess, Hansen (won five of nine career starts, including 2011 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile).

 

TDN: What puts him there?

MM: He was a little challenge from day one, but it was no secret that he had the desire, and he had the talent.

 

TDN: If you had five stalls open in your barn and you could put five horses from history in those stalls, who would they be?

MM: Ruffian. Man 'o War. Secretariat. Affirmed. Alydar.

 

TDN: Those are five pretty good ones. If you were not a horse trainer, what do you think you'd be doing?

MM: You know, I went to college to get into accounting, but I just couldn't see myself being in an office. I was always good with numbers.

 

TDN: Where did you go to school?

MM: I grew up in Madison Heights (Michigan) and went to Langford High School. I went to college at Wayne State University.

 

TDN: You also went to the college of Lukas. You were an assistant to D. Wayne Lukas. Do you have a good Wayne Lukas story for me?

MM: A bunch of them.  Wayne used to always joke when we ride from Louisville to Keeneland for the races. He said the way I was driving, if I was in California, I would've got run over. One day, I got pulled over. Wayne told the cops, “I've been trying to tell him to slow down for miles.' I got a ticket and had to go to traffic school.

 

TDN: Everyone knows what a legend Wayne was. What was the experience like working for him?

MM: It was great. As a kid, you had your sports heroes. Baseball players, football players, basketball players. Mine was Wayne Lukas and I was fortunate enough to work for him. I was lucky to work for him for 10 years. He was like a father to me as he was to others. He kept you motivated, was always positive.

 

TDN: You have trained at tracks all over the country. Is there one that is your favorite?

MM: Churchill Downs. It's home. And all the history.

 

TDN: Where do you put Saratoga?

MM: Right there, below Churchill.

 

TDN: What do you like about summers in Saratoga?

MM: You have the best of the best up here and it's always fun. The competition is great. You see a lot of great horses. Owners come to the races more here than other tracks.

 

TDN: Nights are probably longer because there are so many owners in town.

MM: That is correct.

 

TDN: Is that fun for you?

MM: Sometimes. If you have a bad day and you are down in the dumps and you want to be left alone–at least I do.

 

TDN: This is one of the only sports that I can think of that as soon as the event–the race–is over you have microphones and tape recorders in your face asking for reaction. It has to be tough especially if you have had a tough beat. In other sports, there is a cooling off period.

MM: That doesn't really bother me. It's like pretty much what happens, happens. And there is nothing you can do about it. Turn the page. There is always tomorrow.

 

TDN: I talked to you about doing this Q&A last year at Kentucky Downs. One question I gave you last year–and you said you would think about it for a year–was if you could pick the guy to play you in a movie about yourself, who would it be? Well, here we are.

MM: Dave Chappelle.

 

TDN: Wow. I did not see that one coming. Why him?

MM: One, I'm a fan of his. And I've got a bit of a smart-ass in me as well. Movies have to be entertaining, and I don't think anyone is interested in what happened in my life, so he would have to kick it up a notch.

 

TDN: Favorite horse racing movie?

MM: “Let It Ride.”

 

TDN: If you could have dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be?

MM: My dad. Wayne (Lukas). And my mom.

 

TDN: Are your parents still with us?

MM: No.

 

TDN: Would you be able to get a word in with Wayne there?

MM: No (laughs).

 

TDN: Favorite holiday?

MM: Christmas. Obvious reasons. I have a 12-year-old son, and we have a really good time.

 

TDN: Are you big into gifts?

MM: Yes. I like to give more than receive. I don't care if I get gifts. I prefer not to.

 

TDN: If there is a day that you have just to yourself –and, I know in this business that day never comes– but if you did, what are you doing?

MM: Just trying to hang out with my kids. My 12-year-old (Caden) is pretty entertaining. Michael is 19 and is going to be a sophomore at U of K this fall.

 

TDN: Are they into the horses?

MM: When Caden was young, he really was. He had a pony. He took care of it, bathed it. We worked the 2-year-old sale, and he would clock the horses with his own stopwatch. The first year that he was doing it, I bought a horse–and that was the year Justify won the Triple Crown–and he said he was going to call the horse Lucky because he's the fastest horse in the world. He ran one day. I came home and I said, 'did you see Lucky run?' He went to the lead and got caught in the last jump or two. (Caden) fell to the ground and said he was not going to watch another horse race the rest of his life.

 

TDN: Is he watching now?

MM: He's watching now. He has been to the barn with me this summer.

 

TDN: I know we talked about Dave Chappelle, but do you have any movie actors you like watching?

MM: Brad Pitt. George Clooney. And I like watching Dave Chappelle skits.

 

TDN: But Pitt and Clooney don't get the call to play you.

MM: Nah.

 

TDN: What is your favorite time of day?

MM: I'm an early morning person.

 

TDN: What time do you get to the barn in the morning?

MM: Between 4 and 4:30. I'm usually up by 3:30.

 

TDN: When time do you go to bed?

MM: Whenever I fall asleep. I'll say I get six hours a night.

 

TDN: The race you haven't won that you want to win most of all.

MM: Same as everybody else. The Kentucky Derby.

 

TDN: Your best chance in the Derby. Which was it (he is 0-10 for his career in the Run for the Roses)?

MM: A lot of my horses got in the Derby from artificial surfaces. Hansen, I was always suspicious he could not go that far (finished ninth in 2012).

 

TDN: Hansen was a big story because his owner (Dr. Kendall Hansen) had his tail painted blue. Whatever happened to that guy?

MM: His clinic got raided (in 2019 by Federal agents and he was accused of overprescribing opioids to patients), it went to trail, and he was acquitted.

 

TDN: He's not in the game anymore, is he?

MM: No. I talk to him every now and again.

 

TDN: When you have an owner that wants to do something outrageous like paint a horse's tail blue, do you just have to shake your head and go with it?

MM: It's all you can do. They were good times. He was always in the right place, a very generous guy and enjoyed the game.

 

TDN: Walking through the crowd at Saratoga, or any racetrack for that matter, you are going to hear some things after a race.

MM: Oh, yeah.

 

TDN: If you hear things, is it like water off your back?

MM: It doesn't bother me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

 

TDN: Do you ever say anything back?

MM: One guy, he actually emailed me, and I open my emails early in the morning. He left his phone number, and I decided to give him a call. It was early in my (solo) career. If I remember correctly, he made it sound like I was winning races, and I just came out of nowhere and I had been doing this since 1979. I wanted him to know I was not just showing up in the afternoon and saddling horses.

 

TDN: The guy must have been shocked you called him.

MM: Yeah, he was. I was on my way to work.

 

TDN: He was most likely in bed.

MM: He was.

 

TDN: You loved that.

MM: Yes. I did.

 

TDN: So, you are a funny guy.

MM (smiles). When Charismatic won the Kentucky Derby, we were walking back. Somebody yelled, 'that horse is never going to win another race again.' I said, 'he doesn't have to.'

Mike Maker and Laurel Valley | Sarah Andrew

TDN: Ideal night for you after you get home.

MM: My son Caden and I have a lot of fun. Joking. Playing tricks on each other.

 

TDN: Favorite sport other than horse racing.

MM: Pro football.

 

TDN: Do you have a team?

MM: Detroit Lions. I think they will have a great year although there is the scuttlebutt about all the assistant coaches they have lost (to be head coaches of other NFL teams).

 

TDN: Do you go to games?

MM: Sure do. Last year, I went to the Colts game (in Indianapolis, a 24-6 win) and we had front row seats so that was a good afternoon. Before they were good, I took my family for one at Ford Field for Christmas.

 

TDN: If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would it be?

MM: What you see is what you get.

 

TDN: That works for me.

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