Barkley may run maiden winner Forest Chimes in Rachel Alexandra Stakes
The last week of 2022 proved especially satisfying for the Jason Barkley stable at Fair Grounds.
On Dec. 26, Spooky Channel, now 8, returned from a 14-month layoff to win the $100,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes. On Dec. 31, Barkley sent 2-year-old filly Forest Chimes into her career debut, a two-turn maiden-special-weight race she won by 7 1/2 lengths. Racing over a good, sealed dirt surface, Forest Chimes clocked 1:47.34 for 1 1/16 miles and earned a 79 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I’m not one to win first out, let alone two turns,” Barkley said. “She just trained steady, every work was a little better than the last one. We didn’t really know what we were going to get from her, but she stepped up on race day.”
Barkley and owner John Ballantyne’s NBS Stable didn’t see any point in starting Forest Chimes, a daughter of Tonalist and the Forestry mare Sequoia Queen, in a sprint race. “She never has been a horse that was quick at all. She’s really big and long, we thought she was going to be a two-turn horse.”
Barkley said Forest Chimes is likely to jump straight into stakes competition and will target the Rachel Alexandra on Feb. 18 at Fair Grounds. “I think all my horses move up in their second and third start. If she moves forward, she’s tough, and if she stays the same, she fits pretty well.”
Spooky Channel, also owned by NBS Stable, was claimed for $80,000 in April 2021 and really had hit his stride for Barkley later that year, winning the Remington Green and the Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland. No sooner had Spooky Channel come to a peak than he suffered a lesion in tendon that took him out of racing for well over a year.
Spooky Channel underwent platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and laser therapy, and Barkley gave him “long, slow works, nothing too taxing” bringing the gelding back into race shape. At just 1 1/16 miles, the Diliberto was short of Spooky Channel’s preferred distance, yet he still won by more than two lengths.
“After 14 months, the payoff was there. It was really cool for him to come back and win. Everybody put a lot of time and effort into him,” Barkley said.
Next up: The $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup over 1 1/2 miles on Jan. 28 at Sam Houston, a race Spooky Channel won in 2021 when Brian Lynch trained him.
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