Foolish Ghost, a $25,000 claim last summer at Saratoga, returns with win in Thursday’s John Morrissey. Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo.
By IV Hendrix
Torrential rain fell on Saratoga Race Course Thursday as the field broke from the gate in the John Morrissey Handicap. Trainer Ray Handal stood, thoroughly soaked, on the rail by the winner’s enclosure. By the top of the stretch, things weren’t looking good for Handal’s entry, Foolish Ghost. Until jockey Joel Rosario made a move.
“He’s never won off the pace,” Handal said. “There’s only one guy who could do that and it’s Joel.”
Foolish Ghost, the 4-1 third choice in the field of eight, ran most of the 6 1/2-furlong stakes second behind longshot Wow Brown. But at the top of the stretch, Rosario swung wide to overtake the tiring frontrunner. By the sixteenth pole, Rosario and Foolish Ghost drew off to win by 3 3/4 lengths over My Boy Tate.
“We picked up Joel at the last minute. It wasn’t even planned,” Handal said. “I got Joel because he was unnamed – but I couldn’t have picked a more perfect guy to suit a horse who’s kind of run-off.”
A veteran of claiming and allowance ranks, Ken Russell’s and Richard Newman Racing’s New-York-bred son of Mineshaft had never been entered in a stakes. But at 6 years old, the gelding was quickly running out of conditions.
“We really didn’t have a whole lot of options in terms of where to go with him,” Newman said. “It was either try and take a shot against these tough horses or not run for a month. And he was ready to run.”
Newman, a Queens native, claimed Foolish Ghost for $25,000 at Saratoga in August 2020. Introduced to racing by his father as a child in the 1970s, the longtime owner wasn’t deterred when he heard the gelding had a tough reputation on the backside.
“He’s an absolute need-to-lead type of horse,” Newman said. “In my wildest dreams I didn’t think he’d run this good. [Ray] took a pretty nice horse and turned him in to a star.”
“He was a stone cold runoff,” Handal, who rides the gelding most mornings, said. “I’d take him out to the pony track at Belmont and just kind of jack my irons up and sit against him. He’d rip my guts out for six times around there.”
Foolish Ghost returned from a shorter break than usual between races and Handal wasn’t sure how he’d would fair. Handal said the gelding thrives on four to six weeks weeks between races, but this time he ran back in 25 days.
“I didn’t breeze him in between races and I think that really did the trick,” Handal said. “He really finished with a ton of run. I can’t believe how strong he came home.”
While this wasn’t Newman’s first win at Saratoga, he relishes the feeling each time he makes the trip down the clubhouse stairs toward the winner’s circle.
“We’ve been here before but it certainly feels as good as the first time,” he said. “To be honest I didn’t give him much of a chance, but he just showed a totally different dimension.”
Bred by Pinnacle Farms I LLC, Foolish Ghost is the third foal out of the winning Roaring Fever mare Roaring Ghost. The winner of three of 22 starts with 11 placings and earnings of $94,720, Roaring Ghost is the dam of three winners from four foals to race.
Pinnacle Farms Racing campaigned her first two foals, the Discreetly Mine gelding Saratoga Charlie who won two of 21 starts and $74,603 and the Majestic Warrior gelding Le Grand Warrior who won three of 19 starts and $77,459. Pinnacle also races her 4-year-old Archarcharch filly Ghostghostghost who has earned $22,084 in 10 starts.
Roaring Ghost is also the dam of a yearling New York-bred colt by Sky Mesa, bred by Pinnacle Farms I, and she was bred to Laoban in 2020.
