After missing the first half of the year due to a knee chip sustained in the 2021 Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Del Mar, Special Reserve is rounding back into form just in time for an autumn campaign.
The winner of last year's Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix Stakes (G2) will look to defend his title Oct. 7 at Keeneland, the site of his greatest career victory to date, and comes off a 3 1/2-length victory Aug. 6 in the Senator Robert C. Byrd Memorial Stakes at Mountaineer. The return to victory was a satisfying one for trainer Mike Maker, who saw Special Reserve give way to finish seventh in his first start of the year, the July 16 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes at Laurel Park.
MITCHELL: Special Reserve Holds off Late Challenge to Win Phoenix
"The comeback race was disappointing, but we forgave him and tried to get him the (next) race with the best timing, which turned out to be at Mountaineer," Maker said. "He rewarded us with a victory and hopefully he defends his Phoenix win."
Claimed by Paradise Farms and David Staudacher for $40,000 last February at Oaklawn Park, Special Reserve ran no worse than second last year through six starts for his connections as he moved up through conditions, including a runner-up finish by just half a length to Lexitonian in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. In his seventh and final start of a season in which he also won the Maryland Sprint Match Series Stakes (G3) and Iowa Sprint Stakes, the 6-year-old Midshipman gelding finished fourth behind Aloha West in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. That was the rival he held off one start prior to win the six-furlong Phoenix by a neck.
"He's a lovely horse and we've had good success with him," Maker said. "When we claimed him he was still eligible for his conditions, and with the purses at Oaklawn we were just hoping to get to the 2-other-than condition and make a little bit of money, but he overcame us and had a great year."
Special Reserve faces seven rivals in his bid to become the second back-to-back winner of the Phoenix, which is scheduled as the seventh race on the fall meet's 10-race opening day card, with a post time of 4:12 p.m. ET. Tyler Gaffalione has the mount from post 2.
"He's got natural speed and we're not going to take anything away from him; he's a great horse and hopefully he's forwardly placed," Maker said of Friday's tactics.
Sibelius, winner of the Sept. 10 Lite the Fuse Stakes at Pimlico Race Course, is the only other contender to come in off a victory—two of them, in fact, as he romped by 7 1/2 lengths in that six-furlong test in Maryland on the heels of an Aug. 10 allowance-level score at Saratoga for trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer. Junior Alvarado has the call from post 5 on the 4-year-old Not This Time gelding.
Long Range Toddy is the only other graded stakes winner in the field, but that victory dates to the 2019 Rebel Stakes (G2), with a span of 24 starts without a win since then. The field is completed by stakes winners Top Gunner, Necker Island, Sir Alfred James, and Manny Wah, the latter two of which are graded stakes-placed, and by allowance winner Baytown Bear, who was second to Special Reserve at Mountaineer but sixth last out in the Sept. 17 Louisville Thoroughbred Society Stakes at Churchill Downs after a third in the Sept. 4 Rumson Stakes at Monmouth Park.
The Phoenix is a Breeders' Cup Challenge event for the Nov. 5 Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint, to be run this year at Keeneland. Two Phoenix winners have won the Breeders' Cup Sprint in the same year: Runhappy in 2015 and Work All Week in 2014.
Keeneland, Friday, October 7, 2022, Race 7Entries: Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix S. (G2)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Sir Alfred James (KY) Rafael Bejarano 120 Norman L. Cash 8/1 2 2Special Reserve (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 120 Michael J. Maker 2/1 3 3Top Gunner (KY) Reylu Gutierrez 120 John Alexander Ortiz 10/1 4 4Baytown Bear (KY) Jack Gilligan 120 Paul McEntee 30/1 5 5Sibelius (KY) Junior Alvarado 120 Jeremiah O'Dwyer 5/2 6 6Necker Island (KY) Francisco Arrieta 120 Chris A. Hartman 7/2 7 7Manny Wah (KY) Corey J. Lanerie 120 Wayne M. Catalano 8/1 8 8Long Range Toddy (KY) Paco Lopez 120 Dallas Stewart 20/1
