There was some good horseracing over the holiday weekend, and the best horse in the country finally returned. Ghostzapper zapped his 5 rivals. He saved ground early, brushed to the lead at the three quarters, quickly opened up 8 lengths and won under wraps in a quick 1:33.1 for the mile. The race was easier than expected when Forest Danger was rank, drifted out, and did not show his best.

Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel is one of the trainers that can win with older horses, and can get a horse good and keep him good. As I mentioned in an earlier post, some trainers can only crank them up for a few starts. After the race, Frankel made a point to credit owner Frank Stronach for passing up potential tens of millions in stud fees to race Ghostzapper as a 5yo.

"He took a bigger gamble than anyone else will ever take," Frankel said. "If this was someone else, they would have retired him. He wanted to bring him back so the fans could watch him another year."

Stronach  owns several major racetracks through his Magna Corp. Some critics have questioned his motives and even his business savvy. But Stronach has spent millions resurfacing and renovating tracks like Gulfstream and Laurel, mainly to make the tracks safer for the horses. Plus he has shown good sportsmanship by bringing Ghostzapper back in an attempt to become the first horse to win back to back Horse of the Year titles since Cigar, the only horse to repeat as champion in the past 20 years. I hope he gets it. Ghostzapper looked like a total monster yesterday. If he stays healthy, he'll be tough to deny.