Spooky Channel Dials Up Another Graded Victory

Barn and fan favorite, 8-year-old Spooky Channel , keeps proving that age is just a number.

At age 6, he won the 2021 Sycamore Stakes (G3T) at Keeneland; late last year as a 7-year-old he took the Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots after a 14-month layoff; and March 25 at Fair Grounds, he delivered again, uncorking a late rally under Joel Rosario to catch pacesetting Rising Empire  in the $300,000 Muniz Memorial Stakes (G2T). The victory was the richest of the gelding's and trainer Jason Barkley's career.

"Fun horse to have in the barn and one we'll always remember," Barkley said of his stable star, who gave him his first graded stakes win in the 2021 Elkhorn.

Spooky Channel is a fun horse to watch, too. Despite little pace in the Muniz Memorial, in part due to the pre-race scratch of grade 1 winner Two Emmys , Spooky Channel made the shortage of speed seem like a non-issue, using his closing punch to run past the field. Seventh of nine after splits of :51.14 and 1:15.14 in the about 1 1/8-mile turf race, he kicked into gear down the long Fair Grounds stretch, advancing into second with an eighth of a mile remaining and ultimately catching and moving a half-length past runner-up Rising Empire at the finish.

The chestnut gelding by English Channel  completed the race in 1:54.11 on firm turf, returning $9.20 for a $2 win bet.

Gentle Soul  closed to get third, 3 1/4 lengths behind the runner-up, in a race in which heavily favored Atone , winner of the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1T) came up empty in the stretch and wound up ninth.

An $80,000 claim by Barkley for owner NBS Stable in April 2021 at Churchill Downs, Spooky Channel earned $180,000 in Saturday's race, boosting his earnings to $862,842. He improved his record to 13-4-1 in 28 starts. He is 4-1-1 in seven races for his current connections.

Rosario praised the turn of foot from his mount.

"He likes to pass horses. When he sees a horse in front of him, he wants to come and get him," he said.

Spooky Channel was a $10,000 purchase by bloodstock agent Alistair Roden for initial owner Terry Hamilton out of the Paramount Sales consignment at The October Sale at Fasig-Tipton in 2016. For Hamilton, Spooky Channel won the 2021 John B. Connally Turf Cup (G3T), a race in which he ran third this year on soft turf.

He seemed to prefer the ground Saturday and a cutback in distance from the 1 1/2 miles of the Connally.

Bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm, Spooky Channel is out of the stakes-placed Kitten's Joy  mare Spooky Kitten . He is one of two black-type horses from three winners produced by the dam, with the other being the grade 3-placed Margaret's Joy  (also by English Channel). Three of the dam's eight foals are unraced, among them a 2-year-old colt and a yearling filly who are full siblings to Spooky Channel and Margaret's Joy.

Video: Muniz Memorial Classic S. Presented by Horse Racing Nation (G2T)