Barkley's hard work pays off with first graded win
LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’s a day Jason Barkley will never forget – even if he’s fortunate enough to train another half-century or longer.
Barkley won his first-ever graded stakes Friday when Spooky Channel benefited from a perfect ride from Julien Leparoux in winning the Grade 3 Sycamore on the Keeneland turf. The 32-year-old trainer could barely hold his emotions in check when closing out a post-race televised interview.
“It all just kind of hit me,” Barkley said early Monday from his primary base at the Trackside training center in Louisville.
Barkley grew up in western Kentucky as the son of Jeff Barkley, who retired from training last fall following a 25-year career. The younger Barkley and his fiancée and assistant, Shelbi Kurtz, put in exceedingly long hours at Trackside and elsewhere while also caring for their 2-year-old daughter, Aria.
“Dad was with me Friday, and he’d never won a graded stake, so it was a great family affair and all that,” he said. “You work all your life for that moment, and then it all comes together. It’s pretty special.”
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Spooky Channel, a 6-year-old by English Channel, was claimed by Barkley in April for $80,000 for the NBS Stable headed by John Ballantyne, a transplanted New Zealander now living in North Dakota. The gelding earned a career-high 101 Beyer Speed Figure with his 11th win from 25 overall starts.
Barkley said the Dec. 26 Buddy Diliberto Memorial on the Fair Grounds turf is the likely next start for Spooky Channel, to be followed by some of the same races in which the gelding competed earlier this year, including the Connally at Sam Houston and Muniz at Fair Grounds.
Meanwhile, the Sycamore runner-up, Two Emmys, will be getting a short break before rejoining trainer Hugh Robertson at Fair Grounds sometime over the winter. Two Emmys was coming off a 27-1 upset of the Grade 1 Mr. D. at Arlington Park when leading almost every step of the Sycamore in a neck defeat.