Super Screener: In a Maker horse we trust for the Tourist Mile

The return on investment betting Mike Maker-trained winners at Kentucky Downs is less than spectacular, so when an opportunity arises to bet a quality runner at a decent price, it’s often worth taking advantage.

That appears to be the case in Saturday’s Grade 3, $750,000 Tourist Mile, the headliner to opening at at the Franklin, Ky., track.

Horse Racing Nation’s Super Screener handicapping system is backing Maker’s contender, Hembree, in the eight-furlong test over the European-style turf course. The Super Screener, authored by Mike Shutty, is available on a weekly basis and this Saturday will offer its time-tested, data-driven conclusions for other top races such as Saratoga’s Woodward Stakes (G1).

In the Tourist Mile, Hembree gets the nod as the 4-1 second morning line choice behind Next Shares, a 7-2 favorite who won a stakes last season at Kentucky Downs. A 5-year-old by Proud Citizen, Hembree was sixth earlier this month in Saratoga’s Fourstardave (G1).

“The winner, Got Stormy, broke the track record,” Shutty noted, but Hembree “distributed energy in a very balanced way and closed willingly to be just two lengths behind Chad Brown’s prodigious pair, Raging Bull and Uni.

“Hembree has another move forward in him and did score a lifetime top in a seven-furlong optional claimer on this turf course last year. He’s at his best traveling six to eight furlongs and measures up as a top win contender here.”

Before the off-the-board result in the Fourstardave, Hembree ran second in three straight stakes — one apiece at Churchill Downs, Belmont Park at Saratoga — and opened his season with a victory while setting a track record in Gulfstream Park’s El Prado Stakes back on Feb. 9.

Maker led all trainers by starts, wins, seconds and thirds in 2018 along with money earned. A victory in the Tourist Mile would put him on course for a repeat at the five-day boutique meet.

Shutty figures a swift pace set by contenders such as Siem Riep, Great Wide Open and Real Story will set up a late run by Hembree. Behind that trio, he projects Snapper Sinclair and First Premio to be applying pressure.

Hembree is one of two “A” contenders along with the Neil Drysdale shipper, California-based Majestic Eagle, who’s 10-1 and an “improving 4-year-old colt who is sitting on a big race second off the layoff,” Shutty said. “He’s facing much easier than the bunch he contested in the Del Mar Mile.”

Those two top suggested tickets for the Tourist Mile, with comments on each runner also available in the full Super Screener. Del Mar’s duo of the Debutante (G1) and John C. Mabee (G2) are included for Saturday as well as Monday’s Hopeful (G1) and Del Mar Futurity (G1).