2012 Horse of the Year Wise Dan, Defending Champ Data Link Top Friday’s Maker’s 46 Mile

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Morton Fink’s Wise Dan, the reigning Horse of the Year in North America, and Stuart Janney III’s four-time graded stakes winner Data Link headline a field of five entered Tuesday for Friday’s 25th running of the $300,000 Maker’s 46 Mile.

The Maker’s 46 Mile will go as the ninth race on Friday’s 10-race program with a 5:13 p.m. (ET) post time. First post time Friday is 1:05 p.m.

Wise Dan, who capped a championship campaign with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita in November, will be making his first Keeneland start since winning the Shadwell Turf Mile last October.

Charlie LoPresti trains Wise Dan, who galloped on the turf course Tuesday morning under exercise rider Damien Rock and received a time of :38.60 for three furlongs from Keeneland clockers.

The track record holder for 1 1/8 miles on Polytrack (1:46.63) set last April in the Ben Ali Stakes, Wise Dan will be ridden Friday by Jose Lezcano. Lezcano is substituting for regular rider John Velazquez, who suffered a fractured rib and chipped bone in his right wrist in a spill at Aqueduct on Sunday.

Wise Dan will break from post position five and carry top weight of 123 pounds, conceding 2-5 pounds to his rivals.

Trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, Data Link will attempt to become only the second repeat winner of the Maker’s 46 Mile, joining Kip Deville, the winner in 2007 and 2008. Winner of the Canadian Turf Stakes at Gulfstream Park on February 23 in his most recent start, Data Link edged Turallure by a neck to win last year’s Maker’s 46 Mile.

Javier Castellano will ride Data Link and break from post position four.

Invading from California are St. George Farm Racing’s multiple graded stakes winner Mr. Commons and Wertheimer and Frere’s Silentio.

Trained by John Shirreffs, Mr. Commons was fourth in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile Stakes in his 2013 debut on March 2 at Santa Anita. Mr. Commons will break from post position two and be ridden by Corey Nakatani.

Trained by Gary Mandella, Silentio won the 2012 Sir Beaufort Stakes in his stakes debut last December at Santa Anita and in his most recent start finished second, beaten a nose, in the Kilroe Mile. Silentio will break from post position one and be ridden by Rafael Bejarano.

The field for the Maker’s 46 Mile, from the inside out, is as follows: Silentio (Bejarano, 118 pounds), Mr. Commons (Nakatani, 118), Skyring (Rosie Napravnik, 118), Data Link (Castellano, 120) and Wise Dan (Lezcano, 123).