Fawkes mapping out next conquests for Viking
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David Fawkes has his eyes on several stakes races in the short term and a particular one in the medium term for the blossoming 5-year-old sprinter Viking.
Viking had a 2-for-9 record and a career-best 86 Beyer when owners Alex Lieblong and JoAnn Lieblong moved the gelding to Fawkes’s barn in Florida earlier this year. Viking won the Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park in his first start for Fawkes, went on to capture a one-turn mile handicap there, and after being scratched from the Phoenix Stakes on Oct. 2 at Keeneland because of a minor case of colic, Viking made it three in a row with a 3 3/4-length victory Saturday at Churchill Downs in the $300,000 Bet On Sunshine Stakes. The gelding’s three-race Beyer pattern: 98-97-98.
Viking went straight to the lead Saturday under Tyler Gaffalione and never looked back.
“The racetrack was playing to speed. We thought if we could make the lead or come close to it he’d be tough,” Fawkes said.
Viking came out of the Bet On Sunshine in good order, and Fawkes plans to keep the horse to races at seven furlongs or shorter.
“I think he’s better sprinting,” Fawkes said.
With that in mind, Fawkes could target the Grade 3 Elite Power Stakes on Dec. 5 at Belmont or the Ring the Bell on Dec. 12 at Oaklawn, both over six furlongs. Fawkes has stalls at Oaklawn, and Oaklawn has a seemingly endless string of sprints for older horses, but the race Fawkes would really like to make is the Riyadh Dirt Sprint on The Saudi Cup card Feb. 6. That Group 2 race, also at six furlongs, carries a $2 million purse.
“If we get invited, I’m going,” Fawkes said.
Fawkes won a $2 million race in Saudia Arabia this past February, the Group 2 1351 Turf Sprint with Reef Runner. Reef Runner went on to Dubai and finished fourth in the Group 1, $1.5 million Al Quoz Sprint, then came back to America and notched a 1 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Jaipur at Saratoga. After rising to the top of the North American turf-sprint division, Reef Runner got hurt and hasn’t raced since the Jaipur, but he recently came back to the racetrack and has started light training in the barn.
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