Next race is undecided for Maker's Mark Mile winner Carl Spackler

After Carl Spackler made a spectacular return to the races with a record-setting 4 1/4-length victory under Flavien Prat in Friday’s Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile, the question was where the 5-year-old would run next.

“That’s a (trainer) Chad (Brown) decision,” owner Bob Edwards of e Five Racing said Friday evening before jetting back to a balmier Boca Raton, Florida.

One possibility would be the $1 million Turf Classic (G1) run at 1 1/8 miles on May 3 at Churchill Downs. The Maker’s Mark Mile-Turf Classic double has been accomplished four times by three horses. The most recent was being Hall of Famer Wise Dan, who swept both in 2013 and 2014.

The Maker’s Mark Mile was the first start for Carl Spackler since finishing sixth in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) on Nov. 2 at Del Mar.

“(After the Breeders’ Cup) we thought about it (of possibly retiring Carl Spackler),” Edwards said Saturday morning by phone. “He had won two Grade 1s in a row (the Fourstardave at Saratoga and the Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland) and it was a lot to ask.

“We gave him some time off to let him just be a horse, and he came around quickly. We thought maybe there is something left in the tank.”

In the Maker’s Mark Mile, Carl Spackler showed there was plenty in the tank when he swept past the leaders on the far turn and cruised to the victory.

“I was a little nervous because he was a little far back early,” Edwards said. “But he made that move and I knew he was back to his old form. He is more mature and we are looking to a great 2025 for him with the Breeders’ Cup as the ultimate goal.”

This afternoon, Brown could make another bit of Keeneland history when he sends out Resolute Racing’s Excellent Truth in the 37th running of the $650,000 Jenny Wiley (G1) for fillies and mares.

No trainer has swept the Maker’s Mark Mile and the Jenny Wiley in the same year. Brown has saddled the Jenny Wiley winner the past three years and has six wins during the past seven years. He has a total of seven wins overall.

Prat, who rides Excellent Truth, could become the fourth rider to sweep both races in the same year with the most recent being Javier Castellano in 2019.

Maker’s Mark Mile runner-up Integration, owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing, will remain in Kentucky for the time being with the Turf Classic next “if all goes well,” said Reeve McGaughey, son of trainer Shug McGaughey.