Dual Horse of the Year Wise Dan will start his 2014 campaign on Friday when he takes on six rivals in the $300,000 Maker's 46 Mile on the Keeneland turf.

Winner of a Keeneland record five graded stakes for trainer Charlie LoPresti, Wise Dan faces G1 winner Lochte, Breeders' Cup Mile runner-up Za Approval and Reload, who is undefeated in two starts on the grass.

"You have to get started somewhere and you can't worry about getting beat," LoPresti said.

"In a perfect world, I'd like to have another work, but with the weather that we had that was the hand I was dealt.

"If he is going to be vulnerable, this is it because the others that are in there have been running.”

Wise Dan notched his most recent victory at the Lexington oval in last year's G1 Maker's 46 Mile, which served as the starting point for his second consecutive championship campaign.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez will have the mount in the Maker's 46 on 7-year-old Wise Dan, who will break from post position three toting top weight of 123 pounds.

Lochte, never worse than third in seven career starts on grass, burst nto prominence with a victory in the G1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap.

In his most recent start, the 4-year-old Medaglia d'Oro gelding finished second in the March 8 G1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile on the turf at Santa Anita Park.

Za Approval was the closest to Wise Dan in recent times, finishing three-quarters of a length behind the six-time champion in the Breeders' Cup Mile last November.

The 6-year-old finished fourth in the Kilroe Mile in his first start since then for trainer Christophe Clement.

Reload, trained by Shug McGaughey, has found a home on the grass in his 5-year-old campaign.

He was runner in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park in his initial grass start and followed that with a victory in the G3 Canadian Turf Stakes on February 22.