Friday was a milestone day on many fronts for the Chad Brown barn at Keeneland.

Minutes after Resolute Will delivered career victory 2,999 for Brown at Aqueduct, Zulu Kingdom (IRE) scored a front-running victory in the $650,000 Maker’s Mark Mile (G1) at Keeneland.

“The boss was very happy,” assistant Baldo Hernandez said Saturday morning. “And Zulu Kingdom, he is very good this morning.”

Owned by the partnership of Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, William Strauss and Michael Caruso, Zulu Kingdom gave Brown his 52nd Keeneland stakes victory, a figure that moves him into a tie with Bill Mott for second all time behind only Todd Pletcher (75). Thirty-two of those victories have come in Grade 1 tests.

Hernandez said Zulu Kingdom probably would go to New York with the $300,000 Poker (G3) on June 7 at Saratoga as a possible target.

The next immediate target for the stable is the quest for win No. 3,001. At Keeneland this afternoon, Team Brown will try for another Grade 1 win in the $650,000 Jenny Wiley with Dynamic Pricing (IRE) and Segesta.

Zulu Kingdom finished three-quarters of a length in front of a fast-closing One Stripe (SAF).

“It would have been nice to get a Grade 1,” trainer Graham Motion said about One Stripe. “He’s a good horse — the real deal. I think he will stretch out and eventually go back to South Africa and be a stallion.”

Motion ruled out possibly coming back May 2 for the $1.5 million Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic (G1) at Churchill Downs for One Stripe, owned by Hollywood Racing and Rikesh Sewgoolam.

“I have Test Score for that,” Motion said. “It is too quick for One Stripe. There are not a lot of Grade 1s going a mile, and I’d like to be back here in six months (for the Breeders’ Cup Oct. 30-31).”

Also eyeing the Breeders’ Cup is trainer Will Walden with Gary Barber, Cheyenne Stable and Wachtel Stable’s Rhetorical, who finished third beaten 1¼ lengths behind Zulu Kingdom.

“All in all, it was a good start back and we will circle the Breeders’ Cup and work back from there,” Walden said of Rhetorical, who was making his first start since finishing fourth behind future champion Notable Speech (GB) in the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) Presented by PDJF at Del Mar.

“He beat Notable Speech (who was fourth in the Maker’s Mark Mile) yesterday, but I would have liked to have beaten the other two,” Walden added. “He was a little compromised by the slow pace and I don’t think he liked being caught down on the inside.”

Walden said the Poker was a possibility for Rhetorical’s next start, noting that “we’re not ruling anything out.”

Godolphin’s Notable Speech and Aomori City (FR) are scheduled to fly back to England on Sunday.

Notable Speech was checked several times in the stretch behind a tiring Aomori City.

“It is racing and things like that happen,” said Chris Connett, assistant to trainer Charlie Appleby. “It happens to everybody else a thousand times over. Notable Speech ate up last night and came out of it well. He came back safe and sound, and that’s the main thing.”

Tentative plans call for Notable Speech to return to North America for the Rogers Mile (G1) at Woodbine in September followed by a return trip to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup.

Aomori City finished sixth of seven but was beaten only 3 lengths.

“He stayed on but he may not be at the top level,” Connett said. “I am sure Charlie will find some spots for him.”