Spooky Channel sits back early and turns it on late to take Muniz Memorial
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The scratch of Two Emmys in the post parade of Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Muniz Memorial Classic seemed to leave the 1 1/8-mile turf race without any speed. But that didn’t change the plans trainer Jason Barkley had for Spooky Channel.
“He’ll run all day on the lead, but he doesn’t have a kick,” Barkley said. “You give him a little cover, he’ll run them down.”
Taken back to sixth by Joel Rosario behind a slow pace, Spooky Channel came with a strong kick while five wide in the lane to run down a loose-on-the-lead Rising Empire and win the Muniz by a half-length. Rising Sun finished 3 3/4 lengths in front of Gentle Soul, who was third.
The win was the 13th from 28 starts for Spooky Channel, an 8-year-old gelding by English Channel owned by the NBS Stable of John Ballantyne. The first-place purse of $180,000 improved Spooky Channel’s career earnings to $862,842.
Spooky Channel won the Diliberto Memorial on Dec. 26 from a stalking position when the pace was truly pedestrian. He came into the Muniz off a third in the John Connally Stakes at 1 1/2 miles when again he was close to the pace. Last September, he won a stakes at Remington Park when rallying from next to last.
Rosario said Saturday that Barkley asked him to follow horses, and he had Spooky Channel in sixth down the backstretch while Rising Empire, under Flavien Prat, set soft fractions of 24.55 seconds for the quarter, 51.14 for the half and 1:15.34 for six furlongs. Spooky Channel actually had just one horse beat entering the far turn. Still, Rosario was biding his time.
“He likes to pass horses,” Rosario said. “He saw that horse in front of him and just wanted to come and get him. I just tried to take my time with him, and when it was the right time to go I went.”
Spooky Channel covered the 1 1/8 miles over firm ground in 1:54.11 and returned $9.20 as the third choice.
Behind Gentle Soul, in order, was Another Mystery, English Tavern, Risk Manager, Tiz the Bomb, Native Thunder and Atone.
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