Voodoo Song 5-for-5 at Saratoga, wires Fourstardave Handicap

Voodoo Song, who went 4-for-4 a year ago at Saratoga, continued his run of good forunte on the upstate New York turf, becoming a Grade 1 winner by taking Saturday’s $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap on the front end.

Sent to a five-length lead under jockey Jose Lezcano — and in a field including Heart to Heart, a proven Grade 1 pace-setter — Voodoo Song had just enough in the mile race to hold off a charing Delta Prince outside of him in the lane.

The final time on “good” turf was 1:35.96 on a dreary afternoon at the Spa.

"He wanted to keep running,"Lezcano said. "He's a very nice horse. He loves it."

Off at 6-1 in a field of six, Voodoo Song had capped a run of four Saratoga victories in 2017 by winning the Saranac Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds. That didn't quite win over the betting public. This marked another step up in class, and Voodoo Song handled it after leading through fractions of 23.53, 46.89 and 1:11.20.

“He's very naturally fast," Lezcano said. "I didn’t want to ask him. I wanted him to do it himself...The grass was a little soft. I didn't want him to go too fast early."

After establishing the lead from an outside post, Voodoo Song stretched his margin up the back stretch. The field caught Voodoo Song through the turn, but he never quite relinquished the advantage, kicking on to score by a neck over Delta Prince.

This marked the Linda Rice-trained Voodoo Song’s first start above the Grade 3 level. The 4-year-old by English Channel runs for Barry Schwartz and improved his record Saturday to 8-2-1 in 16 starts.

"It's hard to move up on what he did last year here with winning four races," Rice said. "It was an unbelievable meet and so special to all of us. I think he got a lot of fans here by winning so many races at Saratoga, so it's so exciting to come back. What do you do next? Win the Fourstardave. It's just fantastic.

Behind Delta Prince in third was Divisidero, whose connections opted for this spot over the Arlington Million. Yoshida left the gate as the 9/5 favorite but ran into traffic through the far turn and went on to finish fifth.

"Our horse was just flat today," said trainer Bill Mott. "I can't give him any big excuse. He had good enough position when he headed down the back side. He never carried him [Manny Franco] along very well."