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Thursday’s Insights: Constitution Colt Looks To Author Juvenile Score

10th-KD, $150K, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, 6:28 p.m.
The European-style grass course situated on the Kentucky side of the southern border with Tennessee cards a maiden finale which draws $450,000 Keeneland September graduate from last year, PUBLIUS (Constitution). Bred by Twin Creeks Farm, the bay colt debuts out of Sharp Instinct (Awesome Again), who is the dam of seven winners from nine to race. The Brad Cox trainee, ridden by Florent Geroux, is a half-brother to GIII Excelsior S. hero Send It In (Big Brown).

Also entered is the well-bred Tapitoro (Tapit), who was purchased by De Meric Sales for $170,000 at the Keeneland September Sale and was pinhooked for $300,000 during OBS April Sale. Trained by Brian Lynch and ridden by James Graham, the gray colt is a half-sibling to Canadian champion turf male and GI Ricoh Woodbine Mile winner El Tormenta (Stormy Atlantic), GIII Las Cienegas S. victor Zero Tolerance (Mizzen Mast) and Strut the Ring (Strut the Stage).

Out of an extended female family which includes Canadian Horse of the Year Dance Smartly (Danzig), multiple leading sire Smart Strike (Mr. Prospector) and champion 2-year-old colt trio Sky Classic (Nijinsky II), Regal Classic (Vice Regent) and Grey Classic (Grey Dawn II), Tapitoro's dam Torreadora (El Prado {Ire}) is a half-sister to MGSW His Race To Win (Stormy Atlantic) and the dam of MSW Galilean (Uncle Mo). TJCIS PPS

2nd-SAR, $136K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1m, 1:44 p.m.
Up at Saratoga, first timer Paradise Lane (Quality Road) will debut for Hall fo Fame trainer Bill Mott with regular rider Junior Alvarado up. Bred and part-owned by Pam and Martin Wygod, the bay filly is the first offspring out of GI Santa Anita Oaks and GI Zenyatta S. heroine and 'TDN Rising Star' Paradise Woods (Union Rags). Second dam Wild Forest (Forest Wildcat) is a half-sister to GSW and English GSW Tajaaweed (Dynaformer) and digging a little deeper under the fourth dam we find MGSW and GISP Mr. Greeley (Gone West) and GISW Mona de Momma (Speightstown). TJCIS PPS

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Eight Juveniles Face Off in With Anticipation

A field of eight juveniles will head postward in the 1 1/16-mile GIII With Anticipation S. over the lawn at Saratoga Thursday. West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey's Carson's Run (Cupid) is already a winner over the course and trip where he broke his maiden by a late-running neck July 29. Carson's Run has worked back three times since his victory, most recently covering five furlongs in 1:03.25 (3/4) over the Oklahoma turf training track last Thursday.

“He had a good work on the grass the other day. He's trained very forwardly and we're looking forward to running him again here at Saratoga,” said Miguel Clement, son and assistant to Christophe Clement. “[Jockey] Dylan [Davis] has been breezing him in the mornings. He's always been high on the horse from Day One. The horse has a good turn of foot, and I wouldn't swap positions with anyone else heading into this race.”

While Carson's Run enters his first start against winners as the 7-2 co-second choice on the morning line, he will be an emotional favorite for the Saratoga faithful. The colt's namesake Carson Jost, 30, suffers from a genetic condition called Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome. His father, Wade Jost, is a longtime friend of West Point Thoroughbreds' President and CEO Terry Finley and is a partner in the horse's ownership.

Christophe Clement will also saddle the With Anticipation's 3-1 morning-line favorite Spirit Prince (Cairo Prince), who adds blinkers after finishing a narrowly beaten runner-up in his July 22 unveiling over the same course and distance. The gray colt finished a half-length adrift of Noted (Cairo Prince) that day and that rival returned to win the Aug. 26 Sapling S. at Monmouth Park.

The Bill Mott-trained Gala Brand (Violence), scratched from Wednesday's one-mile off-turf P.G. Johnson S. versus her own sex, is the lone filly in the field. She was flying from far back to win her 5 1/2-furlong unveiling at Saratoga Aug. 3, kicking clear in the lane to a 2 1/4-length score that was awarded a field-best 71 Beyer Speed Figure.

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Classy, Durable Channel Maker Ready For Sixth Sword Dancer

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–On the subject of the resilience of 9-year-old Channel Maker (English Channel) approaching his sixth-consecutive start in the GI Sword Dancer S. Saturday, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott made his point in a few words.

“I can't say enough,” he said.

Mott was smiling, but he wasn't joking.

“What can you say?” Mott said. “He sort of seems like an oddity in this day and age that he's able to stay around and still be in somewhat close to top form.”

Channel Maker has stood the tests of quality and time. The $1 million GI Sword Dancer will be the 55th start for the Ontario-bred in a career that began on July 24, 2016 with a third-place finish in a turf sprint for maidens at Woodbine. He snagged that first win for trainer Danny Vella the following month in the Vandal S. From there, it was on to a third in the GII Summer Stakes, the first of 45 graded stakes–28 of them G1–in his career. He has a record of 10-6-5 and earnings of $3,890,358.

Equibase stats show that since 1976 Channel Maker is one of 12 horses that has run in the same stake a least five times in a row. The stake had to be a Grade I at some point in its history. Of that dozen, five of them–including Channel Maker–accomplished their five-peat in the Breeders' Cup: Better Talk Now (Talkin Man), Turf; California Flag (Avenue of Flags), Turf Sprint; Channel Maker, Turf; Kona Gold (Java Gold) Sprint; and Perfect Drift (Dynaformer), Classic. Before his run in the Turf, Channel Maker ran in the GI Juvenile Turf and is the Breeders' Cup record holder with six appearances.

Channel Maker, the 2020 Eclipse Award champion turf male, is the only one in that group who has also run at least five times in a stake outside of the Breeders' Cup. He has done it twice, both in GI races–the Sword Dancer and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. He has won the Hirsch twice and the Sword Dancer once.

When he leaves the gate for the 1 1/2 mile Sword Dancer, he will pull into a tie with Desert Waves, who ran six times, winning twice, in the Niagara Handicap in the 1990s at Woodbine. Even with six, Desert Times (Alysheba) and Channel Maker will be one behind the legendary iron horse Fourstardave (Compliance), who started in the Jaipur every year between 1989 and 1995. He had a record of 1-2-2 in the Jaipur. In his five appearances in the Daryl's Joy at Saratoga, Fourstardave had two wins and two seconds. The race is now the GI Fourstardave.

During Fourstardave's remarkable 100-race career with trainer Leo O'Brien, the New York-bred gelding won at least one race at Saratoga Race Course for eight consecutive seasons.

According to Equibase statistics, the five who did their five-peats outside the Breeders' Cup are: Cozzene's Prince (Cozzene), Rothman's International; Grand Couturier {GB} (Grand Lodge), Sword Dancer; Hero's Reward (Partners Hero), Highlander S.; Interpatation (Langfuhr), Joe Hirsch; Stutz Bearcat (First Landing), Nearctic.

Channel Maker was handled by Vella for his first six starts, but was moved to Mott's care prior to an April 8, 2017 start at Keeneland after Wachtel Stable and Gary Barber bought into the ownership of the gelding. He was the Canadian champion 3-year-old male that season. His ownership group is now Wachtel Stable, Barber, R.A. Hill Stable and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing.

First seen at Saratoga as a 4-year-old in 2018, Channel Maker has made 10 starts at Saratoga and compiled a record of 3-1-1. That first summer, he finished in a dead heat for first with Glorious Empire {IRE} (Holy Roman Emperor {IRE}) in the GII Bowling Green then ended up second by three-quarters of a length to Glorious Empire in the Sword Dancer. In his standard front-running style, he won the Bowling Green again this summer, at 15-1, ending a seven-race losing streak, and is back in the Sword Dancer, his 50th start for Mott.

Since New York does not allow horses 10 and older to compete, this is likely to be Channel Maker's final appearance in Saratoga. Mott said he did not know if Channel Maker might run in 2024. He said the Bowling Green performance, which carried him to the Sword Dancer, might have been his final start.

“There were plans that if he hadn't run well the last time that maybe he'd be retired,” Mott said. “I don't think any of us want to see his form go five races beaten double digits or something like that. That's not going to happen.”

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Channel Maker Excels with Help from a Friend

NYRA's post parade program coordinator scoffed when she typed out the morning-line odds on Channel Maker (English Channel). 20-1 for the 9-year-old gelding going into the GII Bowling Green S. The Bill Mott trainee hadn't won a race in over a year and he'd finished a distant tenth in his last start in the GII Belmont Gold Cup S.

But the racing pundits and handicappers didn't know what she knew: that the hard-knocking old man looked just as good, maybe even better, coming into the Bowling Green than he had three years ago, when a pair of Grade I victories earned him Eclipse Champion Turf Male honors.

If anyone could have predicted Channel Maker's front-running Bowling Green upset, it was Gilda Libero.

Libero has been Channel Maker's “person” for three years. Daily grooming sessions that bring his dapples to a sheen, regular massages and stretches that conclude with handfuls of carrots, and long hours of grazing are all part of the routine that Libero and Channel Maker share.

“To me, he's really special,” she explained. “I don't know whether the fact that I really treat him so special makes a difference. I'll tell Bill that sometimes I don't even know if he likes me and he'll say, 'He likes you. He's different around you.' So I'll take it.”

Libero first met the chestnut gelding affectionately known around the Bill Mott barn as “grumpy” three summers ago in Saratoga. A racetrack lifer, Libero worked for Mott over 20 years ago, but she had not had a position on the backside since 2001. In 2020, the Mott crew called her asking for an extra hand. The pandemic was causing a staffing shortage and they could use her help in the mornings before she needed to be on the frontside for her role in the racing office.

Like many racing fans, Libero had admired Channel Maker from afar and was looking forward to meeting the turf star.

“I remember when I first laid eyes on him,” she recalled. “I saw him standing in the stall and to me, he was magnificent. There was something about him that drew me to him. Then finally I got to walk him one day and that was it. He just embodied these other horses that I'd had in my life.”

One of those horses that Libero saw in Channel Maker was her beloved Clarinet King (His Majesty). Throughout most of his 165 starts over a career that spanned the 1980s, Libero was his greatest fan. She was a barn foreman for Bobby Ribaudo when they picked up the hard-knocking horse, but she took him on and became his groom. She cheered Clarinet King on from afar when he was later claimed and went to race for other stables, and then adopted him as her own when he retired at the age of 12.

It was his eventual passing that drove her away from working on the backside, but she found another heart horse upon her return to the Mott barn a few years ago.

“It took a long time to be ready, because when I go into something it's 100%,” she shared. “It's a tremendous commitment. You have to be ready for the pain because when you loose them, it's brutal. Doesn't matter what age. They're part of your life.”

After a week of heartbreak for the Mott barn following the sudden passing of their talented Art Collector (Bernardini), who lost his life to laminitis, Libero's heart goes out to her good friend Erma Scott, who shared a close bond with Art Collector just as Libero does with Channel Maker. Both women return to the barn every morning because of their passion for the horses they care for.

“There are times even this summer when I don't want to get up in the morning,” Libero admitted. “But as soon as I don't want to get up, I know he's waiting for me. I have to be there for him. That's life, you know? And there are a lot of us like that out there. I'm not special. There are more people on the track like that than people want to give credit for.”

Along with Libero, Channel Maker has a host of other admirers in the Mott barn and beyond. Libero pointed out how the gelding's former exercise rider Patrice, who recently retired and now watches all his races from afar, used to bring Channel Maker hand-picked grass and would give his head a good long scratch after taking his bridle off every day.

Libero among the celebrators of Channel Maker's 2020 Sword Dancer victory | Sarah Andrew

“A lot of people have been with him for a long time,” she explained. “I don't think there is anybody in the barn that doesn't have a fond spot for him in their heart. Everyone takes care of him in their own little way. He doesn't owe anybody anything. We owe him.”

Libero is also quick to note that the horse, while loveable, does have his idiosyncrasies. Libero is not a full-time member of the Mott team this summer, but she is there every day to care for Channel Maker and believes the exclusive attention she can give the gelding in the morning allows him to perform at his best in the afternoon.

“I get to just pay attention to him and not have to worry about, 'Oh, I have to be here to walk this horse or I have to be there to put the blanket on this horse.' It's really nice and relaxed and I think he does better with relaxed. He doesn't like quick movement around him. He tells you what he wants. You just have to listen.”

Even though he didn't win, Libero's favorite race of Channel Maker's was the 2020 GI Breeders' Cup Turf. She had only been working with the Ontario-bred for a few months, but was already his biggest fan and hoped more than anything that she would be able to make the trip to Keeneland with him.

She went to Mott and told him she would pay her own way if need be, knowing there were other members of the team who had been in the barn for longer than she had, but in the end she was able to make it to Lexington. She cheered Channel Maker on as, with his signature high-headed, front-running style, he was passed only in the final strides to claim third.

“I was so proud of him,” she said. “It was as good as winning. He ran better than I think anybody expected him to and I got to be there with him.”

Owned by Wachtel Stable, Gary Barber, R.A. Hill Stable and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, the earner of $3.8 million will be aiming to make his seventh Breeders' Cup appearance as he returns to the starting gate on Saturday for the 'Win and You're In' GI Sword Dancer S. It will be his sixth straight start in the mile-and-a-half contest, which he won in 2020, and his 29th career Grade I start.

“I think he's going to run a good race,” Libero predicted. “He always tries, never puts in a fluke. You have to love him for that. To me, a win is gravy. Seeing him out there and coming home safe, that's everything. But they're going to have to run to beat him because he's got a heck of a kick for an old boy.”

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