Reef Runner to Stay in Middle East, Trainer Eyes Dubai's Al Quoz

Reef Runner, a 5-year-old gelding by The Big Beast owned by Alex and JoAnn Lieblong, reinforced his international credentials with a victory in the Group 2 1351 Turf Sprint at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh on Feb. 14. Ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., Reef Runner paid $21.10 and beat Group 1 winner Lazzat by a neck in the $2 million race, pushing his career earnings to $1,827,580 and making him the 189th Florida-bred millionaire.

Trainer David Fawkes returned to his Gulfstream Park base after the Riyadh trip while Reef Runner remained in the Middle East. “He’s in Dubai right now,” Fawkes said, adding that the plan is to prepare the horse for the Al Quoz Turf Sprint at Meydan on March 28. The Al Quoz is a six-furlong turf Group 1 on the Dubai World Cup card sponsored by Azizi Developements and carries a reported purse of $1.5 million; Fawkes said, “I’m going to try to go back to work him twice there before the race.”

Owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong celebrated a long-planned overseas trip that paid off in Riyadh. Alex Lieblong said, “The horse has been so consistent and he’s such a neat horse.” He praised Fawkes’s hands-on approach: “David doesn’t have a huge stable, but he’s a good person and he can train a good horse. When he has a good horse, that horse has 110 percent of his attention. David camps out with him and will go the extra mile.” Lieblong added that he expected a strong showing, “We went because we really thought he had a shot; I thought he would finish in the top three”, and stressed the horse’s durability and temperament: “He’s having fun doing it. Once he can get up there on the lead, not too many can catch him,” and on the horse’s future, “He’s pretty easy on himself; I would expect he could race a couple more years,” with a promise that when Reef Runner retires “he’ll have a home for life.”

Reef Runner’s rise has been methodical. The homebred’s record stands at 23 starts with 18 in-the-money finishes and eight wins, including the 2024 Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint at Gulfstream and the Eddie D. (G2) at Santa Anita. After a string of seven straight in-the-money finishes without a victory, connections gelded him; he returned to win an Aug. 3 overnight handicap at Gulfstream following a two-month layoff, finished first but was disqualified to second in Del Mar’s Green Flash (G3), placed fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar, and closed his 2025 campaign with a Janus victory at Gulfstream before shipping overseas.

Fawkes framed the gelding decision as pivotal: “Before I gelded him, he was a horse. When he won his first race after gelding him, I told Mr. Lieblong, ‘We’re going to California and run in the ‘Win & You’re In.’ He won, but they disqualified him. We stayed and won the Eddie D. Then we ran in the Breeders’ Cup.” With Reef Runner installed in Dubai and an Al Quoz assignment on the horizon for March 28 at Meydan, Fawkes and the Lieblongs have set a clear international path that aims to test the gelding at the highest turf-sprint level.