Shaman Ghost (Ghostzapper), whose sire defeated future fellow Horse of the Year Saint Liam (Saint Ballado) in GI Woodward S. for the ages at Belmont Park back in 2004 (YouTube video), was shifted down to the inside by Javier Castellano entering the final eighth of a mile and outgamed a rail-rallying Mubtaahij (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and heavily favored Frosted (Tapit) to upset the 2016 running by a head.
Making best use of the inside draw, Javier Castellano–who called the majority of shots during the career of Ghostzapper–settled the Adena Springs homebred in a share of fourth position as GI Stephen Foster H. hero Bradester (Lion Heart) set only a moderate pace in advance of Canadian raider Breaking Lucky (Lookin At Lucky) and a three-wide Samraat (Noble Causeway). Frosted, off to a tardy dispatch raced slightly worse than midfield through the middle stages, with his stable companion Mubtaahij to his outside. Frosted, off the track every step of the way, was always confidently ridden by Joel Rosario and began to loop rivals nearing the stretch and Shaman Ghost was lying in wait, but both were forced to rally wide when a tiring Bradester drifted well away from the inside in upper stretch. Frosted, still hand-ridden, was gaining inches down the center, but Shaman Ghost was shifted back down to the inside in the final eighth of a mile and finished best of all while racing one off the inside.
Saturday, Saratoga Race Course
WOODWARD S.-GI, $600,000, SAR, 9-3, 3yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:48.92, ft.
1–&SHAMAN GHOST, 120, c, 4, by Ghostzapper">Ghostzapper
1st Dam: Getback Time, by Gilded Time
2nd Dam: Shay, by Incinderator
3rd Dam: Lookin Like a Lady, by Skywalker
O-Stronach Stables; B-Adena Springs (ON); T-James A. Jerkens;
J-Javier Castellano. $360,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 3yo
colt-Can, 12-6-1-1, $1,291,811. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click
for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.[bullet ad=”adena-bred-and-raised”][bullet ad=”ontario-bred”][bullet ad=”taylor-made-hip-2056″]2–Mubtaahij (Ire), 118, c, 4, Dubawi (Ire)–Pennegale (Ire), by
Pennekamp. (€450,000 Ylg '13 ARAUG). O-Essafinaat;
B-Dunmore Stud Ltd. (IRE); T-Kiaran P. McLaughlin. $120,000.
3–Frosted, 124, c, 4, Tapit–Fast Cookie, by Deputy Minister.
O-Godolphin Racing LLC; B-Darley (KY); T-Kiaran P. McLaughlin.
$60,000.
Margins: HD, HD, HD. Odds: 9.00, 5.80, 0.40.
Also Ran: Breaking Lucky, Tapin Mojo, Catholic Cowboy, Tale of Verve, Bradester, Samraat. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
“I am very happy and satisfied the way my horse ran today,” said Castellano. “He cut the corners, saved ground on the first turn and I could see how the race was developing on the backside. When I saw Frosted moving on the outside, I decided to go on the inside, cut the corners, split horses and the way he [Shaman Ghost] did it, he was very impressive today.”
Trained through the first eight starts of his career by Brian Lynch, Shaman Ghost followed in the hoofprints of his paternal grandsire Awesome Again to win the 2015 Queen's Plate and called it a season following a narrow defeat to Breaking Lucky in the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Prince of Wales S. last July 28. Named the 2015 Sovereign Award-winning 3-year-old, Shaman Ghost was turned over to Jimmy Jerkens for his 4-year-old campaign, the bay was third to 'TDN Rising Star' Touchofstarquality (Elusive Quality) in a May 21 Belmont allowance and carried Rosario to a 4 1/4-length score in the 12-furlong GII Brooklyn S. June 11 ahead of a last-out fifth in the GII Suburban H. downstate July 9. He was in receipt of first-time Lasix in the Woodward.
“The last race was a little disappointing,” said Jerkens, whose late Hall of Fame father Allen won the Woodward but once, when Prove Out upset Secretariat when the race was contested over 12 furlongs in 1973. “After the Brooklyn, he came down with a little bit of a nagging cough. It took him a while to get over it. It looked like he was training good up to it, and then was a little flat in the Suburban. The rail was pretty deep that day and he was stuck on it all the way around. I think a combination of the two, he got beat six lengths.”
Jerkens said the winner would be considered for the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park Oct. 8.
Rosario offered no alibis for the long odds-on favorite.
“He didn't break sharp. When I've ridden him before, he liked to take his time,” he said. “He made a nice run. He got a little bit wide but he seemed good. He just got a little tired at the end. Every time I've ridden him, when I hit him with the whip, he didn't like it too much. When I turned [into the stretch], I thought he was going home free. He looked nice. Just the last 20 yards, it looked like he tired a little.”
Pedigree Notes:
Shaman Ghost is the ninth individual Grade I winner for his sire, and joins Moreno as top-level winners at Saratoga. The winner's dam, multiple stakes-placed, but disqualified from an apparent victory in the Cal-bred restricted B. Thoughtful S. in 2007, was bought back when offered at various Keeneland breeding stock sales in 2010 ($27,000, i/f Wilko) and in 2013 ($70,000, i/f Awesome Again), but was purchased by Arindel Farm for $42,000 in foal to Adena stallion Point of Entry (Dynaformer) at Keeneland November in 2014. After foaling a colt by the latter sire in March 2015, who is consigned to the Keeneland September sale as hip 2056, Getback Time produced a filly by Brethren in 2016 and was bred back to that Distorted Humor half-brother to GI Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver.
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