Ghostzapper

All eyes will be on Santa Anita for their opening weekend feature in the GI Awesome Again S. as Bob Baffert trainees Maximum Security (New Year's Day) and Improbable (City Zip) go head to head for the first time since that consequential first Saturday in May last year. The $300,000 Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" contest could mark the emergence of an unusual stablemate rivalry. Over two decades ago, the race's namesake was part of a different rivalry-- one for 1998 Horse of the Year. Awesome Again had gone...

The Keeneland September Yearling Sale opened its first of two Book 4 sessions with a workmanlike day of trade in Lexington Sunday. C.J. Johnsen made the day's highest bid, going to $210,000 to acquire a filly by Ghostzapper (hip 2342) for his CJ Thoroughbreds. Three yearlings tied for the day's second highest price of $190,000: a colt by Maclean's Music and a pair of colts by first-crop sire Unified. A total of 31 yearlings brought six figures on the day. In all, 237 yearlings sold Sunday for $11,516,500. The session...

William H. Lawrence's Liveyourbeastlife (Ghostzapper), the runner-up in the GII Jim Dandy S. at Saratoga Sept. 5, worked five-eighths in :59.89 (3/9) Thursday over the Belmont Park main track in preparation for the GI Preakness S. Oct. 3. Trainer Jorge Abreu said that the dark bay would be supplemented to the third and final leg of the Triple Crown. "He breezed really well today," Abreu said. "He went in :59 4/5, which is something he's never done before. We're going to take a shot." Liveyourbeastlife, a $200,000 Fasig-Tipton Florida Select...

Of all the oddities shoehorned into the 2020 calendar, a Jim Dandy on Derby day felt like one of the most incongruous. In a regular year, this Grade II race serves as a midsummer crossroads for sophomores with an eye on the GI Travers: a chance either to regroup, after participation in the Triple Crown series, or to test the water after missing the Classics through immaturity or injury. At least this latter function was maintained, this time round, in the coming-of-age of 'TDN Rising Star' Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper), a...

5th-Saratoga, $72,000, Msw, 8-30, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f (off turf), 1:04.07, ft. RED GHOST (f, 2, Ghostzapper--Better Than Most, by Elusive Quality) took all the tote attention at 6-5 in this off the turfer, and soon showed why. Breaking on top in typical Wesley Ward trainee fashion, she doled out splits of 21.70 and :45.08 and never looked back as she ran up the score to 8 1/2 lengths in the lane. Fort Drum (Declaration of War), a $5,500 yearling who drew in off the also-eligible list, belied 68-1 odds...

Adena Springs will offer the service of its U.S. stallions for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season, beginning Aug. 15, and running through the summer and fall. Topping the roster at a fee of $20,000 is Ghostzapper. All stud fees are no guarantee payable at 90 days in foal or upon entering quarantine. Multiple mare discounts may be available. For more information, contact Ken Wilkins (859) 699-4887 or Donald Wells (859) 470-9963. The rest of Adena's Southern Hemisphere offerings are: Macho Uno, $2,500; Mucho Macho Man, $3,500, Point of Entry...

In this continuing series, TDN's Senior Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar. Vittorio (c, 2, Ghostzapper-Roberta Turner, by Smart Strike), a $750,000 OBS Spring purchase by Kaleem Shah, has every right to build off a better-than-it-looked debut fifth going five furlongs at Del Mar Aug. 1 (video). Off to a tardy beginning after breaking inward at the start, the 4-1 chance, equipped with blinkers, was slow into stride and trailed the field in ninth through an opening quarter in :23.28....

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Just two tracks on the menu for the weekend, but American-bred and -sired juveniles are set to make their presence felt at Niigata and Sapporo Racecourses: Saturday, July 25, 2020 5th-NII, ¥13,400,000 ($125k), Newcomers, 2yo, 1600mT REFRAME (f, 2, American Pharoah--Careless Jewel, by Tapit) is the latest to the races from...

Keeneland's GI Madison S. was a battle between 'TDN Rising Stars' Guarana (Ghostzapper) and Mia Mischief (Into Mischief) from start to finish, but in the end it was Guarana who won the gutsy brawl. Favored at 1-2, Guarana went straight to the front and was hounded by Mia Mischief, who was let go at a surprising at 8-1, through early splits of :22.95 and :45.92. Mia Mischief drew even with Guarana at the top of the stretch and briefly headed her younger rival, but Guarana battled back in the final...

'TDN Rising Star' Guarana (Ghostzapper), already a two-time Grade I winner from only five career starts, will look to remain undefeated around one turn in Saturday's GI Madison S. at Keeneland. Accorded 'Rising Star' status after romping by better than 14 lengths through the local slop last April, the bay defeated GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Serengeti Empress (Alternation) by a half-dozen lengths in the GI Acorn S. last June and successfully stretched to two turns in the GI CCA Oaks at Saratoga the following month. She suffered her first loss...

Action returned to the sales ring Tuesday for the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and consignors and buyers tiptoed carefully through the first auction since the coronavirus pandemic halted the industry across the globe. At the conclusion of the session, numbers were down slightly from 2019 figures, but by and large participants seemed content simply to have made a new beginning. "Given everything that everyone has had to go through, I think it was a solid start," said OBS Director of...

A co-quickest (:9 4/5) colt by Ghostzapper provided an exclamation point at the end of the opening session of the OBS Spring Sale Tuesday when bringing a winning bid of $750,000 from Ben McElroy, agent for Arman Shah, son of prominent owner Kaleem Shah. Consigned by Becky Thomas's Sequel Bloodstock, Agent VII as hip 1250, he was originally entered in the cancelled Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale. A $250,000 KEESEP yearling purchase by Wyoming native and oil and gas industry executive Joey Platts, the Mar. 30 foal is out of a Smart...