And Frankel cant win either.



What a monster. G1 wins at 6.5, 7, 9, and 10.

The best race horse since Secretariat.

Yeah. I said it.

Very impressive for sure.


Forget my earlier Frankel remark. Or maybe this one is that good.

Anyone know when the last time someone wired a G1 in 1:59? Unheard of isnt it?

Candy Ride is th closest I can think of. Stalked D'oro and drew off in 1:59.11

Zapper is a monster!

Awesome Again had a nice day too.

Thanks Elk....since I was there I guess I shouldve thought of that. Mustve been watching my boy Brew stumble ;>). Even, so that was a stalking trip benefiting from solid fractions. Its different to set them yourself. I mean this wasnt like they let him just walk around the track. He was moving pretty good the whole way.


Horsemen,
Why dont you go read the 4th post in your thread? In fact, Ill save you the time. On 9/9, I wrote "A mortal lock." So blow me with your redboarding crap.

An spare us with the visioary crap. He was 5-2. Its not like you posted the F&M super, the Turf tri, or Wilko.

You will be kindly asked ONE TIME.

Please refrain from flaming on this message board. If you do not comply immediately and offer an apology, your posts will be deleted and you will be banned from here.

Thank you.

Right there with you Ski.


Ghostzapper is certainly a heck of a horse, maybe the fastest in awhile and there is no denying he should be, at least, older horse of the year.

However, it is a sad sign of the times that a horse can win HOY honors off of a 4 race "campaign".

And Frankel using the word "handicap" as in Handicap HOY was amusing. Ghostzapper has never carried more than 126 in his entire career.

IMO, the only horse that would have taken the HOY honors away from the Classic winner (especially PP or GZ) would have been Kitten's Joy with a win...or maybe Azeri?

Come to think of it, neither GZ or PP really ran that hectic of a schedule.

What makes Ghostzapper's performance even more impressive to me is the simple fact that the rest of Frankel's horses didn't run for squat today...but he simply controlled the entire race--a true joy to watch, even though I got screwed by RIM.

Ghostzapper is a great freakishly fast race horse,but his previous races to me were way more impressive than yesterday's.

Dawdling fractions for two horses with as much gas as Ghostzapper and Roses in May have.47 half and 111.32 for 6 furlongs over a very quick strip while backing down the rest of the field.It was almost as if Castellano and JR said to each other:We have the two fastest horses with the most speed-lets not kill each other early-lets slow it down-and when its time to ask our horses -may the best horse win.Going into the 1st turn-watch the holds both Castellano and JR have on both of their horses.Why couldn't the riders on MDO and Congaree in last years classic have figured that out?There was no other contesting speed in that one either-but they went in 46.35 and 1:10.32

Romans and JR were very smart-they didn't really force the issue-making sure it was a two horse race where the horse with the best kick would be the winner.Their tactics took the rest of the field out of the mix.Ghostzapper showed he could crawl early and kick late.Versatile and a great horse,but by no means was the Classic his best race.

ya but that final 1/4 he put up in 23 4/5 under pretty much a hand ride was sizzaling i think the way he ran the horse never took a deep breath...i think he could have run the 3/4 in 109-110 and the result wood have been the same...its as if he has no bottom he never gets tired...i have to disagree with i think this was 1 of the best performences in yrs. he ran the fastest bc classic in history under mild urging and aganist the best the world has to offer i think this was a breath taking performence

Im with you horeman. He just ran his race. If there'd been some rabbit out there he was stalking, I have no doubt he coudlve done just the same. As you said, its not like he dawdled around and came home in 25.

turffan wrote - "However, it is a sad sign of the times that a horse can win HOY honors off a 4 race 'campaign'."

Perhaps, but according to my figures they were four of the nine fastest races of the year at any distance on either surface. In addition, he achieved the two fastest figures for any horse since 1999 and is the only horse since 1999 with four PFs of 95 or more. I don't know if he's the best since Secretariat, but he certainly could be the fastest since Spectacular Bid. Here is a comparison with Dr. Fager in winning races.

6f: Dr. Fager, 1:10.2; Ghostzapper, 1:09.1
6 1/2f: Dr. Fager, N/A; Ghostzapper, 1:14.3
7f: Dr. Fager, 1:20.1; Ghostzapper, 1:20.2
9f: Dr. Fager, 1:48.0; Ghostzapper, 1:46.1
10f: Dr. Fager, 1:59.1; Ghostzapper, 1:59.0

Here are a couple of other comparisons at common distances:

Secretariat:
6f, 1:10.0
6 1/2f, 1:16.1
7f, 1:23.1
9f, 1:45.2
10f: 1:59.2

Spectacular Bid:
6f, N/A
6 1/2f, N/A
7f, 1:20.0
9f, 1:45.4
10f: 1:57.4

Now if he could match his dirt ability on grass, you would definitely have one of the greatest ever.

Much like current baseball "stars", I hesitate to make such head to head comparisons Doc as the tracks would seem to be better groomed and engineered especially for the big days like the breeders cup compared to the days of Dr. Fager, and just as importantly, the spectre of performance enhancing supplements (to put it nicely) has forever made such comparisons skewed.

Nonetheless, it does give food for thought even with the asterisks. And the sheer fact that Ghost has put up such consistently amazing numbers does evidence his own inate talent even without the supplements.

Dr. Roman
There was a horse in the mid 1980's who could run a little.Some winning races of his.
1:08.40 Breeders Cup Sprint
1:21.40 Malibu
1:32.80 Mervyn Leroy
1:46.00 Woodward
1:59.80 Swaps
Not in the class of Dr.Fager,Secretariat or the 'Bid(I saw all 3 run in person) but worthy of his HOF induction in 2003.
Hooper

Again, I'd be nuts to suggest that Ghostzapper isn't a very versatile and very, very fast horse. He's all that. It's just the state of the breed that we've all lamented here, that four races a season makes. Not that Pleasantly Perfect went to the well to often this year but the trip to Dubai explains some of it.

You know way back when the poll was first put up in this forum I chose other and said Ghostzapper. I also took a mighty stand against Birdstone saying he was a NY, deep horse track only. I'm not going to crow about it though. I'm not the only one who got it right so why should I get all worked up over it? Why should anyone?

Hooper wrote:

"There was a horse in the mid 1980's who could run a little.Some winning races of his.

1:08.40 Breeders Cup Sprint
1:21.40 Malibu
1:32.80 Mervyn Leroy
1:46.00 Woodward
1:59.80 Swaps

Not in the class of Dr.Fager,Secretariat or the 'Bid (I saw all 3 run in person) but worthy of his HOF induction in 2003."

Absolutely! How could I have overlooked him? I suppose the only reason he's not among that elite group is because he won fewer than half his races. But when he was "on", he was fantastic and a match for any horse of any era. I wish I had access to his speed figs.

Truly impressive win. Bobby Frankel irritates me much of the time with his whining, blaming jocks for losses etc. but I kind of like him anyhow. When they were interviewing him after the race he was asked if he was worried when some of the other horses came at Ghostazapper on the turn: he said he wouldn't normally have worried, but given his record in the breeder's cup he was a little concerned. (paraphrasing) Kind of puts a human face on the whole thing.