Voodoo Song holds on in thrilling Fourstardave
SARATOGASPRINGS, N.Y. » In addition to Saturday’s $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap (G1), the connections of Voodoo Song had been considering the $100,000 Lure Stakes, the rescheduled edition of which was run as race 10 on Saturday’s card.
In the end, owner Barry Schwartz opted for the Fourstardave, and it’s a good thing he did. Taking the lead from the opening jumps, over a course that had been softened by a persistent light rain, Voodoo Song took this field all the way, staying on through a pressured stretch run and holding off the late challenge of Delta Prince to prevail by a neck.
“He ran so well on a firm course here last year,” said winning trainer Linda Rice. “But we’ve had nothing but rain for two weeks here, so I was very concerned about [the soft ground]. And then there was other speed in the race. But our Plan A was to go to the lead and establish [speed] from the beginning. Jose [Lezcano] rode him beautifully, and here we are.”
Voodoo Song led by open lengths almost from the start and by five lengths at the halfmile pole. The field started closing in on the turn, but the son of English Channel cornered well and was still up by two lengths as he set sail down the stretch. At the eighth pole, Delta Prince, Divisidero and maybe Made You Look were
still in with a chance. In the final sixteenth, Delta Prince shifted into another gear and looked as though he had Voodoo Song measured. But the Barry K. Schwartz (Stonewall Farm) homebred stayed up to the wire. The running time for a mile over a “good” Inner Turf course was 1:35.96.
“He’s fast out of the gate and you always want to let him do whatever he wants
to do,” said Lezcano. “I leave him alone, you don’t want to fight with him. The longer you leave him in the bridle, the better he is.
“When I saw [ Delta Prince coming],” Lezcano added, “I came outside a little bit so [ Voodoo Song] could see him, and he rebroke again. He kept going and wouldn’t let him pass.”
Rice, who admitted to being concerned when she saw that her horse had laid down a :45.89 half-mile, also felt confident in the late stages.
“I was really thrilled
with him in the stretch,” she said. “He just dug in and wouldn’t be denied.”
Divisidero finished third, two lengths back of Delta Prince. Made You Look, favored Yoshida (3-2) and Heart to Heart followed in that order.
It was a tough beat for Delta Prince, who looked as though he might have the momentum in the final yards.“It looked like he had him, but he couldn’t go by,” said trainer Jimmy Jerkens. “It’s hard to say, but I thought he’d be a little closer. He didn’t break all
that great and that didn’t help.”
Trainer Bill Mott offered no excuses for beaten favorite Yoshida. “Our horse was just flat today,” Mott said. “He had good enough position when he headed down the back side. He never carried [ jockey Manny Franco] along very well.”
Both of Voodoo Song’s graded wins have come at Saratoga; he won last year’s Saranac (G3) in his first stakes try in open company. His record improves to 8-2-1 from 16 starts, with total earnings of $870,435.