HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Reef Runner returned to the work tab here Saturday for the first time since his fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. It must have been a warming thought for trainer David Fawkes, who sat shivering outside his barn at Churchill Downs awaiting the arrival of the van scheduled to take more than a dozen of his Kentucky-breds to Arkansas, where they will winter at Oaklawn Park.
Reef Runner had a renaissance during the second half of his 2025 campaign. The 4-year-old Florida-bred suddenly transformed from a nice, stakes-caliber turf sprinter on the local circuit into a Grade 2 winner in California who improved enough to finish in front of eight of his 11 rivals in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
“He totally turned around after we sent him to the farm and had him gelded during the spring,” Fawkes said. “When he returned after the layoff, he was more focused, his stride lengthened, and [he] was a different horse. I could tell from the moment he won his first start back at Gulfstream Park [an overnight handicap on the grass] that he was good enough to think about putting him on a path towards the Breeders’ Cup.”
Sure enough, that’s exactly what Fawkes did. He shipped Reef Runner west to be first across the finish line in the Grade 3 Green Flash Handicap, a victory he ultimately lost via a controversial stewards’ decision, and to win the Grade 2 Eddie D as stepping-stones to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
“I thought he ran very well in the Breeders’ Cup. Unfortunately, the winner [Shisospicy] got loose on the lead, nobody went with her, and, as always, pace makes the race,” Fawkes lamented.
Fawkes said Reef Runner has done well since returning to his South Florida base for the winter, finally getting down to some serious work on Saturday when breezing four furlongs over the Tapeta track in a sharp 46.38 seconds before galloping out five furlongs in 59.19 over the lively surface.
“His regular rider was aboard, and he said he worked terrific, galloped out great – as good as ever. There’s a little stakes coming up here on the 20th, and I’ll probably bring him back in there,” said Fawkes, referring to the five-furlong Janus, a race in which Reef Runner finished a late-striding third to close his 3-year-old season. “I’ll see what’s around after that and wouldn’t be reticent to send him back to California if there was anything out there for him this winter.”
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