Spooky Channel, on familiar path, takes John B. Connally Turf Cup

Use a nine-furlong mid-December comeback race to ready Spooky Channel for a 12-furlong turf stakes: It worked a year ago, and it worked again Sunday.

Spooky Channel, under a well-timed ride from Julien Leparoux, won the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup over 1 1/2 miles at Sam Houston Race Park on Sunday, just holding clear an onrushing Ajourneytofreedom.

Brian Lynch trains Spooky Channel for Terry Hamilton and, in December 2019, Lynch brought Spooky Channel back from a layoff in the Fort Lauderdale Stakes over 1 1/8 miles, a springboard to a late-January 2020 victory in the 1 1/2-mile W.L. McKnight Stakes at Gulfstream. Spooky Channel, a 6-year-old gelding by English Channel out of Spooky Kitten, by Kitten’s Joy, raced in the Manhattan last July 4 and didn’t start again until a fourth-place finish Dec. 12 in the Fort Lauderdale. Same pattern, same result – a graded-stakes win going 12 furlongs on grass.

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Mike Maker, who won the Connally six years in a row until 2020, had three entrants this time, with Conviction Trade, as Maker had said earlier this week, going forward to set the pace. Conviction Trade got a clear lead through splits of 24.57, 48.97, 1:14, and 1:40.52 as Leparoux rated Spooky Channel in fourth, keeping his mount outside and in the clear. Into the last of the Connally’s three turns, Spooky Channel edged forward to take aim at Conviction Trade, whom he collared at the furlong grounds.

Ajourneytofreedom, another Maker entrant, got hung up in midpack traffic approaching the half-mile pole and by the time he extricated himself and came with a wide, sustained, and strong, run it was too late. Spooky Channel held on by about a neck as Conviction Trade stayed on for third.

The final time was 2:30.94. Spooky Channel paid $5 to win as the favorite after racing at double-digit win odds in his last seven stakes starts. His last victory as the favorite came in the $30,000 Hasta La Vista Stakes in 2019 at Turf Paradise, before Lynch took over Spooky Channel’s training. Since then, Spooky Channel has three wins, two in stakes, from nine starts.

* Morning Molly caught pacesetting Catch A Bid inside the final furlong and held off fast-finishing favorite Stunning Sky by a head to win the $75,000 Jersey Lilly Stakes. Valentines Day was along to finish third, getting up over Catch a Bid. Morning Molly was timed in 1:44.70 for 1 1/16 miles on firm turf and paid $7.80 to win.

Tom Proctor trains Morning Molly for her breeder, Willow Lane Stable. A 5-year-old mare, Morning Molly is by Morning Line out of Honor Your Gift, by Sightseeing.