Spooky Channel Retired to Old Friends

Popular 8-year-old gelding Spooky Channel (English Channel–Spooky Kitten, by Kitten's Joy) has been retired from racing and will be heading to Old Friends Farm, according to a post on X by trainer Jason Barkley.

The four-time graded winner posted a career record of 31-13-6-1 and earnings of $1,380,142. Bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm, the $10,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall yearling concluded his career for owner NBS Stable and Barkley with a runner-up finish in the GII FanDuel Kentucky Turf Cup S. at Kentucky Downs Sept. 9.

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Army Mule Represented By First Graded Winner in Herecomesthebride

NBS Stable and Elements Racing LLC's Danse Macabre (Army Mule) was making her seasonal debut at a juicy quote of 12-1 in Saturday's GIII Herecomesthebride S. at Gulfstream Park and fought her way to the wire to become the first graded winner for her successful young sire (by Friesan Fire) with a defeat of the U.S.-debuting Papilio (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}).

Stretching out to a route of ground for the first time and visiting the races for the first time since checking in third as the favorite in the GIII Matron S. at Aqueduct last Oct. 8, the $11,000 Keeneland January short yearling turned $55,000 OBS March breezer was eager early on, but not overly so, and settled well enough three wide and a bit more than a length off pacesetting Moonage Daydream (Candy Ride {Arg}). Put to a hard drive by Adam Beschizza while racing three deep at the three-eighths pole, Danse Macabre hit the front once heads were turned for home, but immediately had Papilio–four wide the trip–breathing down her neck. The latter drifted out in upper stretch, then came in at the furlong grounds and appeared to exchange bumps with Danse Macabre before just failing to finish her job. Cairo Consort (Cairo Prince), the odds-on pop off an amazing victory in the GIII Sweetest Chant S. last time, raced behind midfield in a race run at a modest tempo, and got home well on the grandstand side, but too late.

A debut second sprinting over the Churchill main track last June, Danse Macabre won her maiden with a 78 Beyer in a Colonial turf sprint the following month ahead of a runner-up effort in Saratoga's Bolton Landing S. Aug. 21. The chestnut filly struck from close range in the valuable Untapable S. at Kentucky Downs Sept. 13 before closing her season in the Matron.

“Numbers-wise, she fit in here really well,” said trainer Kelsey Danner, winning the first graded stakes of her young career. “The distance was the question. She's trained like she wanted to go farther. Her last couple races she wanted to probably go a little farther. I think Kentucky Downs probably plays like 7 1/2 [furlongs]. She's got a lot of heart. She's just a classy filly. She does her job every day.”

Pedigree Notes:

Danse Macabre is the first foal to the races from her dam, a winning half-sister to three-time graded winner Cambodia (War Front), whose two Grade I placings include a third to Wuheida (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the 2017 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf over a mile and a quarter. The filly's stakes-winning third dam is responsible for three-time South African champion sprinter and two-time Grade 1 winner Overarching (Arch); GSW Temeraine (Arch); SW Dead Red (Out of Place); and the dam of GI Natalma S. winner Abscond (Blame).

Sylphide is also the dam of a 2-year-old Liam's Map filly that was bought back on a bid of $240,000 at KEESEP last fall and a yearling filly by Always Dreaming. She is due for a full-sibling to Danse Macabre this season.

Saturday, Gulfstream
HERECOMESTHEBRIDE S.-GIII, $200,000, Gulfstream, 3-4, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:37.27, fm.
1–DANSE MACABRE, 121, f, 3, by Army Mule
        1st Dam: Sylphide, by Blame
        2nd Dam: Sassifaction, by Smart Strike
        3rd Dam: Lonely Fact, by Known Fact
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($11,000 Ylg '21 KEEJAN; $27,000
RNA Ylg '21 FTKJUL; $55,000 2yo '22 OBSMAR). O-NBS Stable
and Elements Racing, LLC; B-St. Elias Stables, LLC (KY); T-Kelsey
Danner; J-Adam Beschizza. $117,800. Lifetime Record: 6-3-2-1,
$532,700. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style
pedigree.
2–Papilio (Ire), 121, f, 3, Starspangledbanner (Aus)–Glafyra (Fr),
by High Chaparral (Ire). 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. (€60,000
Ylg '21 ARAUG). O-D. J. Stable LLC, Medallion Racing, Barry
Fowler and Parkland Thoroughbreds; B-SCEA Marmion & Mr A.
Jathiere (Ire); T-Mark E. Casse. $38,000.
3–Cairo Consort, 123, f, 3, Cairo Prince–Absolutely Awesome,
by Street Cry (Ire). ($37,000 RNA Wlg '20 FTKNOV; $95,000 Ylg
'21 FTKOCT; $875,000 2yo '22 FTKNOV). O-Repole Stable and
Town and Country Racing, LLC; B-Frankfort Park Farm (KY);
T-Todd A. Pletcher. $19,000.
Margins: HD, NO, HF. Odds: 12.40, 7.60, 0.70.
Also Ran: Revalita (Fr), Riding Pretty, Moonage Daydream, Malleymoo, Blind Spot, Anna Karenine (Fr), Sweetlou'sgotaces. Scratched: American Rockette, Tituba.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Sunday Insights: Hoping For a Perfect ’10’

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

4th-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, post time: 2:30 p.m. ET
BO DEREK (Speightstown) must have ticked all the proverbial boxes at last year's Keeneland September sale, as she was acquired by WinStar Farm and Siena Farm for $900,000, the priciest of 42 (53 ring) of her Eclipse Award and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint-winning sire's yearlings that were reported as sold in 2021. And the family behind her is extremely live. The Mar. 12 foal is the first from Wildwood Rose (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a half-sister to the late GI Besilu Stables Florida Derby hero and 'TDN Rising Star' Materiality (Afleet Alex) and to GSW/MGISP My Miss Sophia (Unbridled's Song), whose 'Rising Star' son Annapolis (War Front) will have his fair share of supporters in next weekend's GI Breeders' Cup Mile off his victory in the GI Coolmore Turf Mile S. The Into Mischief yearling half-sister to Bo Derek was hammered down to Whisper Hill Farm for $1.15 million at KEESEP last month. Among the competition is the outposted Tough Legacy (Hard Spun), a sister to GIII Regret S. victress Hard Legacy whose dam Stone Legacy (Birdstone) was the very, very distant runner-up to Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro) in the 2009 GI Kentucky Oaks. TJCIS PPs

1st-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, 5f, post time: 1:00 p.m. ET
A pair of Into Mischief colts share the spotlight in the 'Stars of Tomorrow I' opener Sunday. TALLADEGA fetched $400,000 at Keeneland November in 2020, one of three of the exceptional stallions 12 foals to achieve that top foal price, and improved into an $850,000 KEESEP yearling for the aforementioned WinStar/Siena partnership. Closely related to GSW Holiday Disguise (Harlan's Holiday) and also a half-brother to three-time stakes winner Midnight Disguise (Midnight Lute) and GI Del Mar Debutante runner-up Forest Caraway (Bodemeister), the bay is out of a winning half-sister to GSW millionaire Naughty New Yorker (Quiet American). Midnight Pranks, a $500,000 KEESEP acquisition, is out of the unraced Midnight Girl (Drosselmeyer), who was purchased by Twin Hopes Farm for $300,000 with the Into Mischief colt in utero at Fasig-Tipton November in 2019. The mare is a half-sister to dual Grade I winner Midnight Lucky (Midnight Lute) while the deeper female family includes GISW Hookedonthefeelin (Citidancer) and her Grade I-winning offspring Pussycat Doll (Real Quiet) and Jimmy Creed (Distorted Humor). TJCIS PPs

7th-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, 6f, post time: 4:01 p.m. ET
The cleverly named GORDY'S LABEL (Mo Town) was the second-dearest first-crop yearling for this sire (by Uncle Mo) when John Ballantyne's NBS Stables went to $300,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. The dark bay was also the gold medal winner among Mo Town's first foals to go through the ring at $185,000 at KEENOV in 2020. A half-brother to SW Just Read It (Constitution), the Jan. 18 foal is out of a full-sister to SW & GSP Pool Winner (Broken Vow) and to MSP Sounds of the City (Street Cry {Ire}), the dam of MGSW & MGISP Venetian Harbor (Munnings). TJCIS PPs

6th-SA, $61k, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, post time: 6:31 p.m. ET
FORT WARREN (Curlin) has the fence for this career debut and most recently worked six furlongs from the gate in 1:12.80 Oct. 24, the third-best of the morning behind a couple of 'TDN Rising Star' stablemates named Taiba (Gun Runner) and Messier (Empire Maker), who went in 1:11.40. The Feb. 11 foal is the lone listed produce for his SW/GSP dam La Appassionata (Bernardini), a full-sister to GSW Wilburn and a half to Grade II-winning juvenile Beethoven (Sky Mesa) and to the dam of GSW Moonlight d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro). Fort Warren was a $550,000 KEESEP graduate. Drawn just to his outside is Earnhardt homebred Texthelegend (Justify), whose dam Life Blessings (Tapit) is a daughter of the couple's two-time Eclipse Award and five-time Grade I winner Indian Blessing (Indian Charlie). A $100,000 purchase out of the 2021 Fasig-Tipton July Sale, Habeas (Tapwrit) fetched $450,000 at this year's OBS April Sale (:21 flat), the most-expensive of 39 juveniles (45 ring) from the first crop of the Gainesway stallion. The gray is out of a half to GI Spinaway S. winner So Many Ways (Sightseeing). TJCIS PPs

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Spooky Channel Comes Out Of Sycamore Win In Good Condition

NBS Stable's Spooky Channel returned to trainer Jason Barkley's barn at Louisville's Trackside Training Center Friday night at 7:30 and was doing well Saturday, the day after his narrow victory over Grade 1 winner Two Emmys in the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.

For the 32-year-old Barkley, Spooky Channel delivered his first graded stakes victory, which came on the heels of his first stakes victory with the same runner in the Remington Green Sept. 26 at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla.

“No big celebration last night, just started the prep work for today,” Barkley said via text.

The 6-year-old Spooky Channel, the star of Barkley's 32-horse stable, came to the barn at the end of April as an $80,000 claim at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

“We liked his consistency and with the purse structures what they are, there will be plenty of opportunities for him,” Barkley said.

With no grass racing in Kentucky until next spring at Keeneland, Barkley expects to hit the road with Spooky Channel.

“The plan for him will most likely be the ($75,000) Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes (going 1 1/16 miles on the turf) the day after Christmas at Fair Grounds (in New Orleans, La.) with that being a steppingstone for the (Grade 3) John B. Connelly (Turf Cup) at Sam Houston (in Houston, Texas) that he won last January,” Barkley said.

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