Knockanara Takes Family Legacy into Chasing Artie

Mom Queen Del Valle was Multiple Winner at Gulfstream

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Reid Nagle’s Knockanara, whose mother won nine of 12 races and was a stakes winner on the Gulfstream Park turf, will make his South Florida debut looking to carry on the family tradition in Saturday’s $70,000 Chasing Artie overnight handicap.

The 5 ½-furlong Chasing Artie for 3-year-olds and up over the all-weather Tapeta course supports the $75,000 Juvenile Sprint for 2-year-olds, a 6 ½-furlong main track dash, on an 11-race program that kicks off at 12:20 p.m.

Knockanara is out of the Baryshnikov mare Queen Del Valle, co-bred in Maryland by Nagle and his wife, Sarah, as Big Lick Farm with Erin Atkiss. Based in Virginia as well as Ocala during the winter, Sarah Nagle trains the gelded 4-year-old son of 2018 Pegasus World Cup (G1) winner Gun Runner.

“He’s a really fun horse to have in the barn. He really turned a corner this year,” Sarah Nagle said. “He always shows up, so it’s fun to have him and to watch him develop.”

After going winless through four starts last year and his first two of 2025, Knockanara has been third or better in seven consecutive races, including three straight turf sprint victories at different Mid-Atlantic tracks over the spring and summer.

In three subsequent starts Knockanara finished second by a nose, was disqualified to second after crossing the wire first in an open allowance, and beaten a half-length when third in his stakes debut, the six-furlong Turf Sprint Championship Nov. 1 at Aqueduct.

“He’s had throat surgery that seemed to help him quite a bit,” Sarah Nagle said. “Obviously he liked the short turf. We tried him long and our best guess is it’s the throat that stopped him going long, so I wouldn’t be opposed to trying him long in the future, honestly.

“We were sort of at our wit’s end with him and he just kind of got better and better as the year wore on,” she added. “He’s obviously bred to be a good horse, so we were sort of stymied [early in his career] and we’re just very happy to see what he’s become.”

Knockanara’s turnaround is not surprising considering his pedigree. While Gun Runner won 12 of 19 starts, nearly $16 million in purses and was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 2024, Queen Del Valle went undefeated in five starts at Gulfstream, all sprinting on the grass, including the 2017 Miss Presidentress. She also won twice in the fall of 2016 at Gulfstream Park West and went on to capture the Alywow in the summer of 2017 at Woodbine to cap a four-race win streak and set a track record for 6 ½ furlongs on turf (1:12.94) that still stands.

The Nagles claimed Queen Del Valle for $25,000 out of her June 2016 unveiling at Gulfstream, which was her lone try on the main track. She raced exclusively on grass thereafter and wound up banking $186,436 in purse earnings.

“She was just wonderful for us,” Sarah Nagle said. “She’s been a very sentimental part of the family. She won the stake at Gulfstream and took us to Canada to win a stake and set the track record. We’re happy to do right by her and put some black type underneath her.

“She was the queen of Gulfstream for a year,” she added. “She was a really neat filly. We claimed her in the summer at Gulfstream and she was eligible for the starters so she ran that whole fall at Gulfstream West and won the claiming stake the next year as a 3-year-old. I think she would have been a good older horse, too, but she got hurt and now she’s a great mom. I’m glad we still have her in the field.”

Buoyed by Knockanara’s showing in New York, the Nagles targeted the Chasing Artie upon moving their operation south for the season. He is rated as the fourth choice in a wide-open field of eight at odds of 9-2 on the morning line.

“There’s a spot in Maryland at the end of the month. It’s the very last day of racing on turf up there so it’s a long ship if they come off,” Sarah Nagle said. “He’ll go on vacation after this. He hasn’t had a break all year, so we’ll give him a little break. The thought was just to see if he likes Tapeta. He’s in good form and we look more respectable than we thought in there. It’s a good spot. We don’t have many, but if we’re going to make the haul down there we try to have a shot.”

Micah Husbands gets the riding assignment from Post 2.

The 2-1 program favorite in the Chasing Artie is Adam Parker, Suzette Parker and trainer Joe Orseno’s And Uwish (Post 7), who cuts back to one turn off a disappointing showing in the one mile, 70-yard Mambo Meister Sept. 6, his third straight overnight handicap. Upset winner of the 5 ½-furlong Successful Native on Tapeta July 6, a race where favored stablemate Extendo ran fifth, the 4-year-old Mshawish gelding ran second by a length in the five-furlong Warrior’s Pride on turf Aug. 3.

Trainer Victor Barboza Jr. entered the pair of Sosua Summer (Post 3, 5-2) and Roar Ready (Post 5, 20-1). Roar Ready is winless with two seconds and two thirds in six tries on Tapeta while Sosua Summer is a turf stakes winner looking to snap a streak of four consecutive runner-up finishes including a neck loss to And Uwish in the Successful Native.

J J Brevan Stable’s Asher’s Edge (Post 1, 7-2), fourth in the Successful Native, rebounded from a disappointing effort in the Warrior’s Pride to capture the five-furlong Bob Umphrey Sprint Sept. 20 on Tapeta in his most recent start. Trainer David Fawkes is enjoying a spectacular Sunshine Meet with 13 wins from just 37 starters (35 percent) and 26 top three finishes (70 percent).

Completing the field are Big Paradise (Post 4, 12-1), Full Disclosure (Post 6, 15-1) and Neshume (Post 8, 10-1).

Chasing Artie, bred and owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., won the 2022 Bob Umphrey Sprint at Gulfstream and 2021 Palisades Turf Sprint at Keeneland and My Frenchman at Monmouth Park.