Somelikeithotbrown Back in Winning Form at Turfway

Next week will mark the return of trainer Mike Maker's best turf horse, Zulu Alpha, when the grade 1 winner runs in the $200,000 Mac Diarmida Stakes (G2T) on the Feb. 29 undercard of the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes  (G2) at Gulfstream Park.

A little more than a week before that race, Maker showed off one of his supporting equine stars when Somelikeithotbrown returned a winner in an open allowance race Feb. 21 at Turfway Park. In a prep for the $150,000 Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes there March 14, the Big Brown  colt pressed the pace in second before powering away from his rivals under Gerardo Corrales to win a 1 1/16-mile race on the track's synthetic Polytrack surface in 1:43.33.

Video: Race 6 (ALW) at TP on 2/21/20

Somelikeithotbrown was sidelined for more than eight months when a hind-leg injury was discovered after a fourth-place finish in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) at Keeneland in April. He ran last of 11 in a Jan. 20 comeback at Gulfstream after breaking slowly and racing wide.

"I was happy to get him back," Maker said. "It was an excellent performance for his second start (since the injury), and hopefully his third will be even better."

Last year, the colt won the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) at Turfway for owners Skychai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable. As a 2-year-old, he was one of the top grass horses in the country and finished third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) at Churchill Downs.

The upcoming Kentucky Cup Classic is on Jeff Ruby Steaks Day, as it was in 2019.

Michael Hui's Zulu Alpha, the upset winner of the 1 3/16-mile Pegasus World Cup Invitational Turf Stakes Presented by Runhappy (G1T) Jan. 25 at Gulfstream, will extend in distance for the 1 3/8-mile Mac Diarmida Stakes before cutting back for the 1 1/8-mile Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Churchill May 2. The son of English Channel won the Mac Diarmida in 2019.

"He continues to hold his form from what I see," Maker said. "The thought process was he ran so well with the freshening last time. We felt this would give him more time to the Old Forester, which is the main goal."

The $1 million Old Forester Turf Classic, annually the race before the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), was won last year by eventual Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar.