WHO YA GONNA CALL? GHOSTZAPPER.Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas This article is about the city in Texas. For the city in Alberta, Canada, see Grande Prairie, Alberta. Grand Prairie is a city in Dallas County (USA), with a significant overlap into Tarrant County, and a minor overlap into Ellis County. - Ghostzapper, the ``best horse'' the great Bobby Frankel ever trained, had been leading the Breeders' Cup Classic The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade 1 Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3 years old and older run at a distance of 1¼ miles (2012 m) on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup. from the jump, setting just about the most comfortable pace in the history of America's richest race, widening his advantage as he turned into the Lone Star Park Lone Star Park is a horse racing track located in Grand Prairie, Texas. History Lone Star Park opened in 1997. The track offers separate meets for Thoroughbred racing and Quarter Horse racing. In October of 2002, Magna Entertainment Corp. homestretch home·stretch n. 1. The portion of a racetrack from the last turn to the finish line. 2. Informal The final stages of an undertaking. Noun 1. . With stars like Pleasantly Perfect Pleasantly Perfect (born April 2, 1998 in Lexington, Kentucky) is a Thoroughbred racehorse who retired as the fourth richest American horse in career earnings. A son of Pleasant Colony, winner of the 1981 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, he was out of the mare Regal State who , Funny Cide and Azeri spinning their wheels behind Ghostzapper on the damp track, Frankel should have been counting his winnings. Instead, with one-quarter mile to go, he was counting on nothing. ``The only reason I was concerned was because my Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I thoroughbred horse races operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982 by a consortium of North American racing organizations, led by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. record is not that great,'' Frankel said, smiling at his own understatement. ``If it was a normal day, I'd have been very confident.'' After losing with 60 of his first 62 Breeders' Cup starters and saddling the failed favorites in the past three runnings of the Classic, Frankel finally had his day at the sport's champion-making event Saturday. Ghostzapper, a brilliantly fast 4-year-old carrying jockey Javier Castellano Javier Castellano (born October 23, 1977 in Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela) is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. Castellano began his riding career in his native Venezuela in 1996 and in June of 1997 moved to the United States where rode at race tracks in southern and burdened by his trainer's confounding confounding when the effects of two, or more, processes on results cannot be separated, the results are said to be confounded, a cause of bias in disease studies. confounding factor history in the Breeders' Cup, kept drawing away in the stretch and won the $4 million Classic by three lengths in a race-record time of 1:59.02. The impressive victory, his eighth in 10 career starts and fifth in a row, gives Ghostzapper a chance to wrestle the Horse of the Year trophy away from Smarty Jones Smarty Jones (born February 28, 2001) is a thoroughbred race horse, and winner of the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. He is a third-generation descendant of Mr. in season-end voting. On an oval rated ``fast'' but dampened by overnight rain, Roses in May tried vainly to keep up and finished second, snapping his winning streak Noun 1. winning streak - a streak of wins streak, run - an unbroken series of events; "had a streak of bad luck"; "Nicklaus had a run of birdies" at five races. An unsettled Pleasantly Perfect swept far wide on the grandstand turn while trying to rally from 10th in the field of 13 and finished an unthreatening third in his bid for a Classic victory repeat. Behind them came Azeri in fifth in her attempt at the first Classic victory by a mare. Belmont Stakes Belmont Stakes Oldest of the three U.S. horse races that constitute the Triple Crown. The Belmont originated in 1867 and is named after August Belmont (see Belmont family). The stakes is held in early June at Belmont Park, near Garden City, Long Island; the course is 1.5 mi (2,400 m). winner Birdstone finished seventh, and Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide came in 10th. ``The winner ran a humongous race,'' said John Velazquez, who rode Roses in May. It was the end to a perfect afternoon for Frank Stronach, who owns Ghostzapper and whose corporation operates the racetrack that drew 53,717 for a Breeders' Cup that included championship-clinching wins by Wilko (Juvenile), Sweet Catomine (Juvenile Fillies) and Ashado (Distaff). But it really was Frankel's day. At last. Frankel, 63, a Brooklyn native and Pacific Palisades Palisades, cliffs along the west bank of the Hudson River, NE N.J. and SE N.Y., extending from N of Jersey City, N.J., to the vicinity of Piermont, N.Y., with a general altitude of from 350 ft to 550 ft (107–168 m). resident, was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame nine years ago and is one of his sport's all-time sharp operators. Yet he was winless in his first 38 Breeders' Cup races before breaking through with Squirtle Squirt's in the 2001 Sprint and adding a win with Starine in the 2002 Filly & Mare Turf. He had been frustrated in the previous three Classics with favorites Aptitude (eighth) and Medaglia d'Oro (second twice). The difference Saturday? ``It's not that I did a great job,'' Frankel said. ``He's a great horse.'' Since debuting with a nine-length victory at Hollywood Park in November 2002, the son of Stronach's 1998 Classic winner Awesome Again has won graded stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs (rallying from 10th), 7 furlongs (from close to the pace), 1 1/8 miles twice (stalking the leader each time) and now 1 1/4 miles (leading from gate to wire). His sloppy-track victory in the Iselin Handicap at New Jersey's Monmouth Park earned the highest Beyer speed figure The Beyer Speed Figure is a system for rating the performance of Thoroughbred racehorses in North America designed in the early 1970s by Andrew Beyer, the syndicated horse racing columnist for The Washington Post. (128) in more than a decade. ``In my heart, I thought he was the best horse I ever trained,'' Frankel said of Ghostzapper, who went off as a slight favorite over Pleasantly Perfect and paid $7. ``Obviously, he had to prove it on the track.'' Castellano, a 27-year-old Venezuelan in his first Breeders' Cup, sent Ghostzapper to the lead from the No. 1 post position and angled away from the rail to avoid what Frankel believed was the most tiring part of the track. Ghostzapper set soft fractions of 47 seconds for the first half-mile, 1:11.32 for the three-quarters and 1:35.38 for the mile. Then he dashed the final quarter-mile in 23.64. The fans who jammed little Lone Star Park on an afternoon of unexpectedly clear weather saw a great trainer win with an emerging star horse. The only fans with a right to feel disappointed were the holders of two pick-six tickets that were alive going into the final race. One needed Roses in May to win, the other needed Pleasantly Perfect, and either would have been worth $3.4 million. Ghostzapper's victory left no perfect tickets and $56,149 payoffs to go to holders of 61 naming five of the six winners. Kevin Modesti, (818) 713-3616 heymodesti(at)aol.com CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: (color) Ghostzapper, ridden by jockey Javier Castellano, gave trainer Bobby Frankel his first victory in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Al Behrman/Associated Press Box: CLASSIC |
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