No Trick, Spooky Channel Provides Barkley With Major Treat

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 Sycamore (G3).

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.

“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.

“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 with that being a steppingstone for the John B. Connelly (Turf Cup-G3) at Sam Houston that he won last January,” Barkley said.