Shaman Ghost wears down Dolphus in the Pimlico Special
Class will tell. Sometimes it just takes awhile. In the best of possible outcomes for trainer, Jimmy Jerkens, his big horse, Shaman Ghost, wore down the newer horse in his barn, Dolphus, to win Friday's Grade 3 Pimlico Special by a determined neck.
Coming in off two excellent starts in 2017, a second to Arrogate in the Pegasus World Cup in January, and a victory in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in March, the multiple Grade 1 winner was hammered down to 2-5 favoritism in the historic 1 3/16-mile affair. Facing him were eight other older males, including his stablemate, who was made a slight second choice at 6-1.
The field broke perfectly from the Pimlico's starting gate, which was colored pink in honor of Black-Eyed Susan Day and the Susan G. Kormen for the Cure, the world's largest breast cancer organization. With no horse going too hard to take the early advantage, Dolphus eventually grabbed the bull by the horns, to take a narrow lead into the first-turn, after breaking from the rail. Meanwhile, Shaman Ghost was close to the early leaders, but was in tight, and was shuffled back just a bit to sixth as the field of nine navigated the first part of the turn.
Javier Castellano, riding the big favorite for the fourth time in his last five starts, was able to deftly move his charge out of trouble, and to the outside to obtain an ideal stalking position down the backstretch. In front of him, Dolphus pushed clear of his closest rivals through early splits of :23.84 and :47.92.
The Jerkens trained pair maintained their position into the far turn. While the rest in the field tried to make a move on the leader, only Shaman Ghost was able to make any sort of headway as the field came spinning into the homestretch. Dolphus spurted clear just a bit, but Shaman Ghost turned it on to quickly make the $300,000 race a two-horse affair.
Dolphus, in pink blinkers, remained resolute on the rail, but Shaman Ghost, with a white shadow roll, was relentless with his rally from the outside. The favorite was on even terms by the sixteenth pole, but still the half-brother of Rachel Alexandra fought on. The momentum of Shaman Ghost would not be denied, though, and he powered home late.
Conquest Windycity won the race for third, but was more than seven lengths behind the top two. Final time for the 9 1/2 furlongs was a very solid 1:54.55.
As the big favorite, Shaman Ghost returned $2.80, $2.20, and $2.10 across the board. The $2 exacta over the game Dolphus returned $11.40, while the $2 triple of 6-1-9 was good for $59.00.
Shaman Ghost, a five-year-old bay son of Hall of Famer Ghostzapper, was originally trained by Brian Lynch, and was brought along slowly early in his career. Once he got going, though, he was able to rattle off four straight victories culminating with an important win north of the border, in the Queen’s Plate. Last year, in his first season for Jerkens, he added the prestigious Woodward to his list of victories, which now totals 8, in 16 lifetime starts. After today's win, the Ontario-bred now has career earning of $3,719,311.
As far as the game runner-up, Dolphus was making his third start for the Jerkens' barn, and is clearly responding for his new trainer. The four-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky ran a huge race in defeat today, and looks to be still improving.