{"id":1673,"date":"2017-09-05T15:08:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T15:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.linda-rice.com\/?p=1673"},"modified":"2017-09-05T16:51:36","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T16:51:36","slug":"voodoo-song-earns-four-star-rating-at-saratoga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/voodoo-song-earns-four-star-rating-at-saratoga\/","title":{"rendered":"Voodoo Song Earns Four-Star Rating at Saratoga"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pity the North American owner and trainer with a top-class 3-year-old on grass. A Breeders\u2019 Cup title is rarely in their future. Neither is an Eclipse Award championship likely. Possession of such an animal, no matter how good, usually must be its own reward.<\/p>\n

In the combined 66 runnings of the Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf and Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile, only four U.S.-trained 3-year-olds have carried the day. Neil Drysdale won one of each with War Chant and Prized, while Shug McGaughey took the Mile with Lure and LeRoy Jolley won the Turf with Manila.<\/p>\n

As far as the Eclipse Award goes, at least during the Breeders\u2019 Cup era, 3-year-olds Sunshine Forever, Itsallgreektome, and Kitten\u2019s Joy had records impressive enough to earn championships, even though a Breeders\u2019 Cup title escaped their grasp.<\/p>\n

This is a long way around to an appreciation of the two 3-year-olds who bookended the major turf action over the weekend. Voodoo Song, a son of English Channel, won his fourth race of the Saratoga season in the Grade 3 Saranac last Saturday. Then on Sunday, Sharp Samurai, by First Samurai, completed his sweep of the meet\u2019s best division races in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby. Whether or not we hear from them again, they always will have the summer of \u201917 to remember.<\/p>\n

Both races were at a mile and one-eighth, and each test afforded the winning jockeys a chance to tap skill sets perfect to the task.<\/p>\n

In the Del Mar Derby, Sharp Samurai appeared to have nothing on opponents like Bowies Hero, winner of the restricted Oceanside, or Big Score, the Transylvania winner who had not run since the Belmont Derby, while Fashion Business and Colonist had been lapped on Sharp Samurai in the La Jolla. Given a loaded gun by trainer Mark Glatt, Gary Stevens did his classic wait-wait-pounce routine on Sharp Samurai, surging past Big Score, Bowies Hero, and Colonist in about a dozen strides, then maintained his advantage to the wire.<\/p>\n

At Saratoga, Jose Lezcano once again let Voodoo do that which he does so well, which has been to run the opposition ragged in frustrating pursuit. After stretching his lead to more than half a dozen lengths between calls, Lezcano kept pedalling hard enough to hold off the proven stakes horses Yoshida and Bricks and Mortar to win by a neck.<\/p>\n

Sharp Samurai could have been claimed for $75,000 last February, when he won a maiden race by more than nine lengths, but he wasn\u2019t. Likewise, Voodoo Song was risked for a $40,000 tag running in his first turf race in eight months, on the first Saturday of the meet. He proceeded to win by more than five.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut really, how much of a chance did I take?\u201d said Barry Schwartz, who bred and races Voodoo Song. \u201cMaybe you\u2019d look at him because of the grass angle. But he\u2019d lost three dirt races in a row, and he got beat double-digit lengths in all of them. Although you can\u2019t believe it sometimes at Saratoga. You\u2019ll look at the list of claims each day and there\u2019ll be five taken out of a maiden race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voodoo Song was making his first start for Linda Rice, who took charge of his training upon the retirement in July of Mike Hushion, Schwartz\u2019s New York trainer for a quarter of a century. Four days later, Voodoo Song won again, in New York allowance company, then added a third straight on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really rank in those first two races and won anyway,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cBy the third race, Jose got him to settle down. The key seemed to be to just let him be himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a former chairman of the New York Racing Association, Schwartz said there is no place else he\u2019d rather win a race as Saratoga, let alone four with the same horse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing is, without him I would have gotten the duck for the meet,\u201d Schwartz said, summoning the hoary racetrack term for a shutout. \u201cBut four wins is four wins, no matter how you get them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the fans were great. When we went down to the winner\u2019s circle last Saturday, they were high-fiving for the horse. He\u2019s become a real favorite, which is great, because horses don\u2019t stick around long enough anymore to get a real following. He\u2019s 3 and he\u2019s a gelding, so hopefully he\u2019ll have a long career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning four races in 40 days is not unprecedented. But when you do it on a stage like Saratoga, you are threatening to become a local hero. The patron saint of Saratoga legends is Fourstardave, who won 10 races at the track, including at least one a year from 1987 through 1994. Fourstardave, a foal of 1985, has a racetrack bar and a Grade 1 race named in his honor, and is buried Saratoga\u2019s Clare Court jogging track,<\/p>\n

Voodoo Song has a long way to go before legendary status comes knocking. First, he\u2019ll have a few more chances to run against his own kind this season before reality hits next year. It should be noted, however, that Fourstardave didn\u2019t win his fourth race at Saratoga until he was 5. And not for nothing, Fourstardave was a chestnut with a long blaze bred in New York, and Voodoo Song is a chestnut with a long blaze bred in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can only hope,\u201d said Schwartz.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Original Article –\u00a0http:\/\/www.drf.com\/news\/hovdey-voodoo-song-earns-four-star-rating-saratoga<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pity the North American owner and trainer with a top-class 3-year-old on grass. A Breeders\u2019 Cup title is rarely in their future. Neither is an Eclipse Award championship likely. Possession of such an animal, no matter how good, usually must… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage-slides","category-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1673"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1680,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673\/revisions\/1680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}