Trainer Jack Sisterson said Calumet Farm's homebred Channel Cat will ship to New York for Saturday's $200,000 Grade 2 Red Smith at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.
Initially training for a start in the G1 Breeders' Cup Turf last Saturday at Del Mar, Channel Cat did not draw into the race and did not breeze last weekend. On Saturday morning, Channel Cat went a half-mile in :49.60 over the Keeneland main track.
“He's showing signs that he's coming up for a big effort,” Sisterson said. “We had his work schedule penned out to run in the Breeders' Cup. We missed a work with him because we didn't want to put him over the top.”
Last out, Channel Cat was a distant sixth in the G2 Kentucky Turf Cup on September 11 at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky., when tracking the pace from third.
Sisterson said he would like to see Channel Cat, who will add blinkers, show the same early speed which earned him victories in the G1 Man o' War in May at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., and the G2 Bowling Green in August 2019 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
“I felt like his last couple of starts he lacked that little bit of spark and the addition of blinkers will help him do that,” Sisterson said. “In the race at Kentucky Downs, he didn't make the lead and didn't really finish up. I felt that there was something missing the last two races and I think blinkers will help.”
Channel Cat boasts a ledger of 29-6-3-5 with earnings in excess of $1.4 million.
Sisterson spoke of the recent retirement of Grade 1-winner Lexitonian, who upset the G1 A.G. Vanderbilt field in July at Saratoga at 34-1 odds. The son of Speightstown, a Calumet Farm homebred, was ninth in the G1 Breeders' Cup Sprint last Saturday and will stand at Lane's End Farm in Midway, Kentucky for a $10,000 stud fee.
“It's a dream for myself, the barn, and the rest of the guys who do all the hard work for the horse to go on to a fantastic second career and to a farm like Lane's End,” Sisterson said. “It's very humbling that Calumet and Lane's End were able to work something out. He's every trainer's dream to have speed, be sound, and win a Grade 1. He should have a successful stud career.”
Lexitonian is the first progeny out of the Tapit mare Riviera Romper. His second dam is Swap Fliparoo, who captured the 2006 G1 Test at Saratoga.
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