Spooky Channel Scores 36-1 Upset in W. L. McKnight
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Derbe Glass
Spooky Channel (blue cap) rallies to take the W. L. McKnight Stakes at Gulfstream Park
The retirement to stud of $2 million earner Heart to Heart last year left a void in the racing stable of owner Terry Hamilton and trainer Brian Lynch, though the void didn't last for long. At Gulfstream Park Jan. 25, the duo had another grass horse win a graded stakes race when Spooky Channel lit up the toteboard with a 36-1 upset in the $200,000 W. L. McKnight Stakes (G3T).
Like Heart to Heart, Spooky Channel is a son of English Channel , but the comparisons otherwise end there. Heart to Heart was a miler known for his speed; Spooky Channel is a closer who only gets warmed up a mile into a race and is in need of a marathon distance to be at his best.
He got that length of ground Saturday in the 1 1/2-mile McKnight, and he took a massive stride forward off his previous form. The 5-year-old gelding rallied from seventh to nail Cross Border just before the wire, winning by a neck under Julien Leparoux, Heart to Heart's jockey for much of his 41-race career. The winner covered the distance on firm turf in 2:26.16 and returned $74.60.
“He broke pretty good from the outside and got covered up on the first turn," said Leparoux. "I decided to make a move early on because the way the track is playing and he kept going all the way to the wire.”
Finishing second was Cross Border, another son of English Channel. A pace presser for much of the three-turn race as longshot Dubby Dubbie set fractions of :49.28, 1:13.93, and 1:38.43, he took command on the final turn, opened a 1 1/2-length advantage in midstretch, and just failed to last.
The Mike Maker trainee finished 2 1/4 lengths ahead of stablemate and third-place finisher Apreciado, who was 1 1/4 lengths ahead of 4-5 favorite Red Knight.
Maker, who took the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes Presented By Runhappy (G1T) with Zulu Alpha a half hour later, had won the McKnight three consecutive years before Saturday.
A $10,000 yearling purchase in 2016 by bloodstock agent Alistair Roden for Hamilton from the Paramount Sales consignment at The October Sale, Fasig-Tipton's yearling sale in Lexington, Spooky Channel was bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm, where English Channel stands this year for a $35,000 fee. Spooky Channel is the first foal out of the stakes-placed Kitten's Joy mare Spooky Kitten and her lone winner from two to race.
Though Spooky Channel had run well on turf before Saturday, even over a distance of ground, he was largely overlooked by the betting public, with all of his earlier success coming at Turf Paradise in Phoenix. There, he won three non-black-type stakes that carried purses of $30,000 apiece.
Brought east midway through last year, he ran seventh in the 1 3/16-mile Arlington Handicap (G3T) and then was rested until he finished eighth in the 1 1/8-mile Ft. Lauderdale Stakes (G2T) at Gulfstream Dec. 14.
"I thought his last race beaten three lengths in the Fort Lauderdale with those horses was a great effort for a horse that wants to stay a mile and a half, a mile and three-quarters," said Lynch. "He's trained great since.
"He's a marathon horse and it's nice to get him out of Turf Paradise and let him show he can fit with these horses out here, because that was a field of good field of stayers right there."
He earned $116,560 for Hamilton in winning the McKnight, improving to 7-for-12 with a bankroll of $207,806.