Reef Runner Back on Home Turf for $125,000 Janus

Defending Champ Coppola Among Rivals in Turf Sprint

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – After a summer and fall on the West Coast that resulted in his first graded-stakes victory and trip to the Breeders’ Cup, Alex and JoAnn Lieblong’s Reef Runner is back at his home track and looking to upend familiar rival Coppola when they meet again in Saturday’s $125,000 Janus at Gulfstream Park.

The ninth running of the Janus for 3-year-olds and up, scheduled for five furlongs on the grass, is the first of five stakes, two graded, worth $750,000 in purses on an 11-race Pegasus Preview Day program that begins at 12:20 p.m.

A 4-year-old Florida homebred gelding by Grade 1 winner The Big Beast, also campaigned by the Lieblongs, Reef Runner has been third or better in 16 of 21 career starts with $552,405 in purse earnings. He has never failed to hit the board in 10 lifetime tries on the Gulfstream turf, three of them wins including his most recent in the five-furlong Warrior’s Pride overnight handicap Aug. 3.

Following that triumph Reef Runner was sent to southern California where he took up residence with trainer John Sadler and was cared for by his assistant, ex-jockey Juan Leyva, with an eye on the Breeders’ Cup in November at Del Mar. It was there where Reef Runner crossed the wire first in the Aug. 30 Green Flash Handicap (G3), an automatic qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1), but was disqualified to second for interference shortly after the start.

Gulfstream-based trainer David Fawkes brought Reef Runner back in the 6 ½-furlong Eddie D (G2) Sept. 27, and he rebounded with a determined half-length victory at Santa Anita to set up his return to Del Mar for the Turf Sprint where he finished fourth of 12, beaten four lengths by loose-on-the-lead Shisospicy.

“It looked bad, but I don’t think it was too much interference on his part,” Lieblong said of the Green Flash. “I was kind of tickled when he came back from in the Eddie Read and [won]. In the Breeders’ Cup, when that other horse went out to the lead by himself, that was an impressive race. He did not embarrass himself.”

Fawkes was impressed with the way Reef Runner settled in out west and particularly how he seemed to thrive with Leyva, who made a name for himself in South Florida as the regular rider of champion Musical Romance and won 803 races before retiring in 2017.

“Juan Leyva and the team did a wonderful job out there with him. Every time I’d see him he glowed like a new penny. They did a phenomenal job,” Fawkes said. “He came back good and he’s been doing fantastic.”

Reef Runner rallied from last after slamming into the starting gate during last year’s Janus to finish third behind Coppola, beaten 2 ¾ lengths. He shaved the margin down to one length when third in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint Jan. 25, again after encountering early trouble.

“We’re happy to have him back and doing well,” Lieblong said. “We’re looking forward to the race.”

Since returning from California Reef Runner has breezed three times at Gulfstream, twice over the all-weather Tapeta course, most recently going a half-mile in 48.43 seconds Dec. 14. Tyler Gaffalione, a three-time Janus winner who was aboard in the Breeders’ Cup, rides from Post 8 in a field of nine. They are second choice on the morning line at 2-1.

“He’s such a cool horse,” Fawkes said. “He’s just like having a Jack Russell in the barn. He’s a character. He’s a good-looking animal and he’s a lot of fun.”

Hammer Time Stable and Sport of Kings Racing Partners’ Coppola is the 9-5 program favorite, with 11 wins from 34 career starts and less than $4,000 away from millionaire status. He is unraced since being beaten a neck when second in Ellis Park’s Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint Aug. 3, which followed a front-running triumph in the William Garrett Handicap four weeks earlier at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Trainer Dale Romans, who is juggling his barn duties with a campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky currently held by the retiring Mitch McConnell, was forced to scratch Coppola from a planned start in the Green Flash that he hoped to use as a springboard to the Breeders’ Cup.

“He’s training good,” Romans said. “We went and took him to California and he came up off on the day of the race. We did all the diagnostics and really couldn’t find anything, and he got better. I think he’s ready to roll.”

The speedy and well-traveled Coppola, fourth by 1 ½ lengths in the 2023 Janus, has four wins from seven career tries on the Gulfstream turf. Irad Ortiz Jr. has the mount on the 9-5 program favorite from Post 5.

“This race has been good to him,” Romans said. “He likes five-eighths [and] he likes Gulfstream so we wanted to have him ready for here.”

Also entered are Reef Runner’s stablemate Asher’s Edge (Post 1, 30-1), winner of the Sept. 20 Bob Umphrey Sprint on Gulfstream’s Tapeta; Full Disclosure (Post 2, 20-1); Spiced Up (Post 3, 8-1), winner of the Aug. 10 Mahony (G3) at Saratoga; 15-time career winner Boat’s a Rockin (Post 4, 20-1); multiple stakes winner Whenigettoheaven (Post 6, 10-1); Litigation (Post 7, 4-1), 4-for-7 lifetime making his stakes debut for trainer Brian Lynch; and July 6 Successful Native overnight handicap winner And Uwish (Post 9, 12-1).