BLOODLINES RING TRUE IN $100,000 REMINGTON GREEN AS SPOOKY CHANNEL LEANS ON TURF PEDIGREE FOR BIG WIN

It wouldn’t be surprising if Spooky Channel, winner of Sunday’s $100,000 Remington Green Stakes, bled greed with his turf breeding on the top and bottom of his pedigree.

It doesn’t get much better than English Channel’s bloodlines on top and Kitten’s Joy on bottom when it comes to horses that flourish greensward. That’s pretty much Spooky Channel’s family tree and he has proven it to be true to form with 10 wins in 24 trips over grass courses, including this one in the Remington Green. English Channel and Kitten’s Joy have more grass winners than blades of grass on the Remington Park course, it seems.

English Channel was a Champion Horse on the grass with $5.3 million in earnings, winning six Grade 1 races, including the Breeders’ Cup Turf. Spooky Channel is out of the Kitten’s Joy mare Spooky Kitten, which means more turf racing prowess. Kitten’s Joy has been the No. 1 sire on grass in North America multiple times and was a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner with more than $2 million banked on turf.

Kitten’s Joy was voted the Champion Male Horse on the grass in 2004 despite running second to Better Talk Now in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. He has produced about 100 stakes winners as a sire and saw his stud fee rise from $25,000 to $100,000 because of his progeny’s prowess on the grass.

Spooky Channel looked just like his daddy on Sunday, skimming over the grass like a skipped rock and gliding home a winner in the 1-1/8 miles race by three-quarters of a length over runner-up Sunlit Song, last year’s winner of this race. Spooky Channel was made the 5-2 favorite by the betting public and bettors sent Sunlit Song away at 4-1 odds. The third-place finisher was Tut’s Revenge (7-2), another three lengths back.

Spooky Channel, with jockey James Graham getting a leg up from trainer Jason Barkley, paid $7.20 to win, $4 to place and $2.60 to show across the board. The 6-year-old gelding is owned by NBS Stable (Art Neuhedel) of Gardner, Kan. He was bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm. This is another horse with an amazing sale price. He was purchased out of the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale for $10,000. Spooky Channel earned $60,000 for this win and improved to 24 starts, 10 wins and four seconds for $511,722 in earnings.

It was Graham’s first win in the Remington Green, although he did take home an Oklahoma Derby victory with Lone Sailor in 2018, his only Oklahoma Derby mount. It was also the only Remington Green win for the owner and Barkley. The gelding’s winning time was 1:47.01 over the firm turf. He came from 10th in the early going to pass nine other horses for the victory. He was still in fourth as they came into the stretch, but found the afterburners down the lane. The amazing part of his run from the back of the field is that the early fractions weren’t blistering. The early speed went :23.55 for the first quarter-mile, :47.28 for the half-mile, 1:10.54 for three-quarters of a mile and 1:35.06 for the mile. The pace picked up swiftly in the last half of the race.

An indication of just how good this grass horse is may have been his victory in the Grade 3 John B. Connally Turf Cup at Sam Houston Race Park at 1-1/2 miles on Jan. 31 this year.

The remaining order of finish in the Remington Green was Popular Kid (4th), Spirit Animal (5th), Don’task Don’ttell who was the pace-setter before fading in the final furlong (6th), Megacity (7th), Guided Missile (8th), Singapore Flash (9th), Carlea’s Dream (10th) and Fred’stwirlincandy (11th).

Racing continues next week with a Wednesday-Saturday, Sept. 29-Oct. 2 schedule. First post time is 7:07 p.m. nightly.

Tracked by more than 167,000 fans on Facebook and 10,400 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $272 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park is home for the $1,000,000 Oklahoma Classics Night, an evening of stakes racing to celebrate Oklahoma-breds, on Friday, Oct. 15. Simulcast horse racing featured daily, the casino is always open! Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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