Graded stakes winner Spooky Channel eyes Fair Grounds return

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Spooky Channel won back-to-back turf stakes last fall, ending with the Grade 3 Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland, but now the stretch-running gelding has yet to race in more than a year.

“He came up with a little tendon injury when we were getting him ready for a race at Fair Grounds,” said trainer Jason Barkley. “It did not require surgery, and we just let him heal up naturally. We’ll probably start him back early at Fair Grounds.”

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Fair Grounds starts its 2022-23 meet Nov. 18.

Spooky Channel, now 7, has posted six workouts since early September at the Trackside training center in Louisville for Barkley, who is enjoying a memorable year. Barkley, 33, and Shelbi Kurtz, his longtime assistant, were married Sept. 25.

“I’m on my way to [Horseshoe Indianapolis] and she’s back at the barn at Trackside taking care of everything,” Barkley said by phone early Monday. “It’s all going pretty well.”

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