Two Emmys will try to stretch his speed to 12 furlongs in Elkhorn at Keeneland
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two Emmys, front-running winner of one of the nation’s major turf events, will look for the lead in the Grade 2, $350,000 Elkhorn Stakes Saturday at Keeneland.
But he won’t find himself lonely out there in the marathon 1 1/2-mile event. Multiple graded stakes winner Phantom Currency returned from a long layoff with a front-running victory that should have him sharp, and the two could have an imposing presence breathing down their necks in Eclipse Award champion Channel Maker, seeking to recapture his best form.
Two Emmys won the Grade 1 Mr. D. Stakes – née the Arlington Million – last August, holding on by a neck over the classy Domestic Spending after making the pace in the 1 1/4-mile race. In his subsequent outing, the gelding, who has been alternately trained by co-owner Hugh Robertson and his son Mac Robertson, was caught late to be second by a neck in the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland going this same 1 1/2-mile distance.
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Two Emmys lost his first two starts of this year at Fair Grounds before returning to his best form to win the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Classic, getting loose on the lead and holding firm to win the 1 1/8-mile race by 2 1/2 lengths. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 102, matching his career best earned at Arlington.
“He’ll run all day if they let him gallop along,” Hugh Robertson said.
Two Emmys is drawn in post 3 under regular rider James Graham. Phantom Currency has a slight advantage placed outside of his front-end foe, next door in post 4 under Irad Ortiz Jr.
Phantom Currency won his only two starts of 2021, including a front-running score in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida. But a soft-tissue injury than put him on the sidelines for more than a year.
“We gave him plenty of time,” trainer Brian Lynch said. “He went through the full rehabilitation program [at Margaux Farm]. They’ve done a great job getting him ready for us, and we’ve been able to just train straight on with him. We haven’t missed a beat.”
Phantom Currency returned with a sharp wire-to-wire victory going a mile in the Grade 3 Appleton on April 2 at Gulfstream. He is stretching out off that win.
While Channel Maker has used front-running tactics for some of his major wins, he has also shown the ability to stalk and pounce. Drawn just outside of Two Emmys and Phantom Currency in post 5 under Luis Saez, he can thus watch the pace develop and adjust accordingly.
Channel Maker, an 8-year-old gelding trained by Bill Mott, won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer and Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in New York in 2020 and finished third as the best-placing American in that fall’s Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland, all at this 1 1/2-mile distance. Those efforts secured him an Eclipse as outstanding turf male. But he went winless in six outings in 2021 in a well-traveled campaign that included trips to Saudi Arabia and Dubai, as well as across the country to be fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar in his most recent start.
The field of nine for the Elkhorn also includes graded stakes winners Another Mystery, Bemma’s Boy, and Sole Volante.