For a three-month span from the end of 2022 through March of this year, Jun Park and Delia Nash's Sibelius ranked among the top sprinters in the country, if not the world.
Trained by Jeremiah O'Dwyer, Sibelius won the Mr. Prospector (G3) at Gulfstream Park on New Year's Eve and followed that with a victory in the Pelican (L) at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 11. Off that victory, O'Dwyer sent Sibelius to the Middle East, and the 5-year-old gelding responded with a victory in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) Sponsored by Nakheel.
Sibelius will try to get back to the winner's circle Friday afternoon at Keeneland, when he goes to the post in the 171st running of the $350,000 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G2) going six furlongs on the main track. He will exit post 3 under Luis Saez, who was aboard him for his maiden-breaking victory here on April 23, 2021.
“He is training like he is in top form, and his works have been visually impressive,” O'Dwyer said via text about Sibelius, who arrived at Keeneland on Tuesday from Palm Meadows Training Center in South Florida. “So he is ticking all the boxes right now.”
Since his victory in Dubai, Sibelius finished fourth in the Aristides (L) at Churchill Downs on June 3 and then was seventh of 12 in the Bing Crosby (G1) at Del Mar on July 29.
“The Phoenix was the plan after the Bing Crosby because we wanted to bring him home and freshen him up and give him plenty of time between starts after all the traveling he has been doing,” O'Dwyer said.
Friday's race is a Breeders' Cup Challenge race, which awards the winner a fees-paid berth into the Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) to be run Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.
“He would have to win the Phoenix pretty impressively for me to consider sending him to the Breeders' Cup, even though that is somewhere we'd love to get to run,” O'Dwyer said.
The post Phoenix: Speedy Sibelius ‘Ticking All The Boxes’ After Freshening, Breeders’ Cup A Possibility appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
