Veterans Channel Maker, Red Knight hook up again in Elkhorn

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eclipse Award champion Channel Maker and fellow multiple graded stakes winner Red Knight meet up for the second time this season as they head the field for Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Elkhorn Stakes on the Keeneland turf.

The two 9-year-olds have earned more than $5 million while racing in six different states, Canada – where Channel Maker is also a Sovereign Award champion – and the Middle East. They have made 82 starts, the most recent for both coming when Red Knight rallied from off the pace to win the Grade 3 William L. McKnight Stakes on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park, with Channel Maker fading to seventh after pressing the pace.

The McKnight was the sixth career stakes wins for Red Knight, who also has seven career stakes placings. Channel Maker has nine stakes wins – four at the Grade 1 level – and nine placings.

“He’s a horse that never ages,” co-owner Dean Reeves said earlier of Channel Maker. “When I go see him, he looks just as good as he did two years ago. . . . The horse is just a warrior. He trains well. He’s one of those that, boy, if they were all like that you’d have a lot more people in the business.”

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Both Channel Maker, trained for almost all of his career by Bill Mott, and Red Knight, who had his first season of racing for Mike Maker in 2022 after transferring from Mott’s barn, are multi-time winners at the 1 1/2-mile distance of the Elkhorn. Moreover, both are accomplished at the distance on the Keeneland course – Channel Maker won the 2022 Elkhorn and finished third, beaten only a length, in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Turf, and Red Knight won the Grade 3 Sycamore in 2020.

“The horse hasn’t missed a beat, and having said that, he’s run well fresh for us,” Maker said. “I’m looking for another big effort Saturday.”

A wrench could be thrown into the Elkhorn by the course conditions. After weeks of dry weather in Kentucky, resulting in a number of stakes records on the Keeneland turf course this spring meet, there is much needed precipitation in the forecast on Friday and Saturday, with a 58 percent chance of rain on Saturday. Channel Maker was off the board in three starts on courses rated good in 2022 and 2021, but did win the Grade 1 Sword Dancer on a soft course in his 2020 Eclipse campaign. Red Knight hasn’t raced on a course rated less than firm since 2021, finishing off the board in three starts on good turf.”

The Elkhorn matchup between these two runners could come down to race shape. Channel Maker, known for his distinctive high-headed style, typically likes to race on or near the lead, and is drawn on the rail with John Velazquez. The late-running Red Knight, with Gerardo Corrales aboard, will be keenly watching what develops early.

Rising Empire, trained by Brendan Walsh, was a close second to Spooky Channel after setting the pace in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds, and will likely want to show the way again here. He drew post 3 under Florent Geroux, who was aboard him for the Muniz.

Between Channel Maker and Rising Empire is Value Engineering in post 2 under Tyler Gaffalione – cleared to ride as scheduled after escaping serious injury in a Wednesday spill. Value Engineering could add intrigue by pressing the pace. He was second to his Maker-trained stablemate in the McKnight.

A rising candidate stepping into stakes company for the first time against the turf veterans is Howe Street. The 4-year-old won his maiden in his second career start for Jorge Abreu, going a mile on the Gulfstream turf in January. He then stretched out to 1 3/8 miles to win an allowance race there on March 5. He earned a respectable Beyer Speed Figure of 92 that stacks up well here; by comparison, Red Knight ran a 94 in his season-opening McKnight win.

Another younger runner in the field is Tiz the Bomb, looking to recapture his winning form for Kenny McPeek. The colt was a graded stakes winner on this Keeneland turf course as a juvenile, and a graded stakes winner on synthetic last year. Most recently, he was fourth in a salty turf allowance on opening day of this meet.

– additional reporting by Marty McGee

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