Reef Runner on the Mend at Gulfstream Park

After being sidelined with a soft tissue injury this summer, Alex and JoAnn Lieblong's grade 1-winning homebred Reef Runner is on the mend having rejoined David Fawkes' Gulfstream Park barn, although his resumption of training is still a bit away. The gelded son of The Big Beast was proving to be the nation's top turf sprinter earlier this year after traveling to the Middle East to win the 1351 Turf Sprint (G1T) in Saudi Arabia and finishing fourth in Dubai's Al Quoz Sprint (G1T) before returning home to win the Jaipur Stakes (G1T) in June at Saratoga Race Course. However, he emerged from a workout one month later with inflammation. He was then sent to Nick Esler's Sandhurst Thoroughbreds at the Oak Ridge Training Center near Morriston, Fla., for rehabilitation. READ: Injury Shelves Reef Runner for Rest of 2026 Speaking at his Churchill Downs barn Nov. 10, Fawkes said it will still be a bit of time before Reef Runner resumes training activities, but the vets have given a good prognosis that once he is fully healed he will be ready to race. "He is in the barn at Gulfstream shedrowing right now, so he's still got a little mending to go," Fawkes said. "I was hoping it was going to be four months, but it looks like it's going to be closer to six. It's a slow healing process, but if he comes back, he'll be fine. All the vets who have looked at him previous have all said he'll be fine." No Other Like You Sticks to Dirt in Claiming Crown Meanwhile, Fawkes is preparing Monarch Stables' No Other Like You for her biggest race yet in the $100,000 Claiming Crown Glass Slipper Nov. 14 at Churchill Downs, a 1-mile starter allowance on dirt for fillies and mares who have started for a claiming price of $12,500 or less in 2025-26. Connections claimed the 4-year-old Tiz the Law filly for $35,000 at Gulfstream Park in January and have won twice while hitting the board in six of nine starts since. All but one of those starts have come on turf or Tapeta, but she ran well enough in an Oct. 14 off-the-turf Keeneland allowance for Fawkes to take the shot on dirt here. "She was just a lucky, nice claim. She's seemed to mature a lot since we claimed her," Fawkes said just before the filly paddock schooled and trained over the Churchill Downs surface Tuesday morning. "She ran credible, and she's just been working really good over this racetrack." The filly will Fawkes' eighth starter in the Claiming Crown and the first since it has been consistently held at Churchill Downs for four of the last five years. "I think it's a great idea," Fawkes said of the Claiming Crown. "It gives these horses an opportunity to run for a little extra money one time."