Channel Maker crossed the finish fourth in the Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes on Aug. 1 at Saratoga. A disqualification moved him up to third. But was Channel Maker still even qualified to race in high-level turf stakes?
Channel Maker emerged from the Bowling Green a one-time winner from his last 14 starts. During that string, he’d crossed the wire better than fourth only twice. His 6-year-old campaign of 2020 started like a long march on a short pier – three fourths, two eighth-place finishes. Channel Maker is a gelding, an aging one; his stakes career was ticking down.