Initially trained in France, he won two minor races in the spring of 2011 before defeating a strong field to win the Prix du Jockey Club.
As a descendant of the broodmare Judy O'Grady, Fair Salinia came from the same branch of Thoroughbred family 16-c which also produced Green Dancer, Solemia, Authorized, Dream Well and Makfi.
Mosse restrained the colt at the back of the field before moving forward in the straight, taking the lead in the last 100 metres and winning by three quarters of a length from Veter.
[7] On 5 June, Reliable Man was moved up sharply in class for 174th running of the Prix du Jockey Club over 2100 metres at Chantilly and started a 16/1 outsider.
In a slowly-run race (the time was 5.8 seconds slower than that for the Grand Prix) Reliable Man settled in third behind the leaders King of Armor and Colombian before moving up on the outside to take the lead 300 metres from the finish.
[10] Explaining the colt's improvement from his previous run, Royer-Dupre said "The ground was too firm for him in the Grand Prix de Paris and he didn't come down the hill well.
He was then sent overseas for the first time to contest the Prince of Wales's Stakes over ten furlongs at Royal Ascot and finished fourth behind So You Think, Carlton House and Farhh.
[12] In September, Reliable Man was dropped in class and started odds-on favourite for the Group Three Coupe de Maisons-Laffitte but was beaten one and a half lengths by the Jonathan Pease-trained Maxios.
On his final appearance of the season, the colt was sent to Canada to contest the Canadian International Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in which he finished eighth of the ten runners behind Joshua Tree.
He started at odds of 11/1 behind the odds-on favourite Dundeel (to whom he was conceding eight pounds) with the other contenders including the New Zealand Derby-winning mare Silent Achiever.
After tracking the leaders, Reliable Man moved to the outside, accelerated 300 metres from the finish, took the lead went clear to win by two and a half lengths from Dundeel, with the Emirates Stakes winner Happy Trails taking third ahead of Silent Achiever.