Divining Rod Nears Return, Hidden Treat May Be Stakes-Bound
Divining Rod Nears Return, Hidden Treat May Be Stakes-Bound
Ideal Conditions Set up Ghost Hunter’s Record-Setting Effort
Stakes Winner Bodhisattva Stepping Up Following Recent Win
LAUREL, MD – Lael Stables’ Grade 3 winner Divining Rod is scheduled to have his first five-eighths breeze Thursday morning at the Fair Hill Training Center since returning to the work tab in early June.
The 4-year-old Tapit colt has not raced since finishing fifth in the Smarty Jones (G3) last August at Parx. Last year he ran third in the Preakness Stakes (G1), Ohio Derby and Indiana Derby (G3) after winning the Lexington (G3).
Divining Rod reunited with trainer Arnaud Delacour in late spring and shows four works at Fair Hill, three of them over the dirt and the last on the all-weather Tapeta surface July 7, a half-mile in 49.60 seconds.
“We haven’t really pushed him,” Delacour said. “Tomorrow’s breeze is going to be his first five-eighths, in company, so that’s really where I’m going to see if he has that spark that he had last year. At the moment, I just wanted to give him enough bottom works to be able to get a stiffer breeze. So we’ll see tomorrow.”
Delacour said he plans to work Divining Rod over the dirt but may switch to the Tapeta with rain in the forecast. Though he has yet to look for a spot, Delacour said Divining Rod is inching closer to his comeback.
“We’re getting there gradually with him,” he said. ‘We’re not in a hurry. If everything goes well, we’ll be looking for a race probably a month from now.”
Delacour is also pleased with Lael’s 3-year-old stakes-winning filly Hidden Treat, who won a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance by three-quarters of a length in 1:40.95 July 2 over Laurel Park’s All Along Turf Course.
Winner of the 2015 Sandpiper Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs to cap her juvenile campaign, Hidden Treat finished off the board in the Sweetest Chant (G3) Jan. 30 at Gulfstream Park and was fifth in an optional claiming allowance May 1 at Laurel and third in the Stormy Blues Stakes June 4 at Pimlico since returning to Maryland.
“I had a question mark on the distance. I didn’t know whether she could go a mile and a sixteenth but she did it great,” Delacour said. “We tried her a mile this winter at Gulfstream and it didn’t work out great, but I don’t think it was because of the trip. I think she didn’t like the track over there more than anything else. Obviously, she did very well and I’m pleased with her.”
Delacour is considering a return to stakes company for Hidden Treat. She is nominated to the $100,000 Boiling Springs (G3) for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles July 24 at Monmouth Park.
“She came back well so I might be a little ambitious with her next time and put her in a stakes,” he said. “I’ve been looking at who’s going in the Boiling Springs at Monmouth. I’m not definite about if I’m going to bring her there or not but I’ll have to look at who’s coming, the competition, and if it makes sense I’ll probably take a shot.”
Ideal Conditions Set up Ghost Hunter’s Record-Setting Effort
Trainer Jamie Ness felt it was the right combination of timing, track and trip that proved ideal for Jagger Inc.’s 6-year-old gelding Ghost Hunter in his record-setting performance Sunday at Laurel.
A son of Hall of Famer Ghostzapper bred in Kentucky by Adena Springs, Ghost Hunter stalked pacesetting Souperfast along the rail before angling outside in the stretch to catch and pass the frontrunner and win the 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance by a length.
The winning time of 1:39.00 over firm ground topped the previous All Along Turf Course record of 1:39.4 set June 18, 1995 by a 4-year-old Warning Glance, who carried five pounds less than Ghost Hunter’s 122.
“The circumstances were good. He was doing good, he got a good trip, caught a fast turf and he really likes hard, fast turf. Everything went right,” Ness said. “It looked like he just ran his race.”
Among the horses that finished behind Ghost Hunter were Grade 3 winner Syntax, who ran third, and Grade 1 winner Chiroprator, last as the 9-5 favorite in a field of nine. It was the first turf win in six tries for Ghost Hunter that included three runner-up efforts by less than a length combined.
He was second by a nose to multiple Grade 3 winner Mister Marti Gras April 16 and came up a neck short of multiple stakes winner Dannhauser Jan. 13, both at Tampa Bay Downs, and was second by a head to multiple Grade 3-placed Roman Approval last November at Laurel.
“Those are three really nice horses, three stake horses,” Ness said. “He was 0-for-5 on turf but it was a little misleading.”
Ness is unsure of the next spot for Ghost Hunter, now a winner of his last two starts. He has finished no worse than third 27 times in 37 career races with 12 wins and $332,530 in purse earnings.
“He’s doing fine. I have no idea what’s next; no clue,” he said. “He’s really good on the synthetic surface at Presque Isle; he’s only been beaten once in five tries on that. I’ll probably run there next unless a race pops up in Maryland. He has no conditions anymore. It’s tough finding a race for a horse like that. He’s an old, game horse. He always fires.”
Stakes Winner Bodhisattva Stepping Up Following Recent Win
Bodhisattva, winner of the 2015 Federico Tesio Stakes owned and trained by Jose Corrales, will face stakes competition again in his next start.
The 4-year-old Student Council colt, bred in California by Andy Stronach, snapped a seven-race losing streak dating back to his Tesio victory, his last previous race in Maryland, with a 3 ¾-length optional claiming allowance triumph June 19 at historic Pimlico Race Course.
He is entered to run in the $50,000 Carl Hanford Memorial Stakes Saturday at Delaware Park, where he drew post two in a field of eight that includes graded stakes winners Kid Cruz and Albano and Warrioroftheroses, third in the Pimlico Special (G3) May 20 for Laurel-based trainer Damon Delodovico.
“The horse is training well and he’s good. I’m hoping he runs his race like he did last time and I can find out where my horse is,” Corrales said. “I was expecting him to run well last time but I wasn’t expecting him to really come out the way he did it. I wanted to make one move and the jockey rode him the way I wanted and it came out with a good result. This horse, if I can be able to get him right that way, he can be anything.”
Ridden for the first time by Taylor Hole, who has the return call Saturday, Bodhisattva was unhurried early at Pimlico before uncorking a rally on the far outside to hit the wire in 1:44.50 for 1 1/16 miles over a fast main track. He won the Tesio at the same distance in front-running fashion in 1:45.18.
Eighth in the 2015 Preakness, Bodhisattva was off the board in the Pegasus (G3) at Monmouth and Canadian Derby (G3) and Speed to Spare Stakes at Northlands Park in Edmonton, Alberta before Corrales sent him to trainer Doug O’Neill at Santa Anita to open 2016. He was no better than fifth in three tries for O’Neill before rejoining Corrales in Maryland.
“I brought him over here, trained him the way I trained him, worked him a little bit harder and I had him fit and ready to go. I told the jockey I don’t care if we lose or whatever because he already lose enough. I said just make one move. I don’t want to see you any closer than five lengths from the last horse and see what we can come out with. Maybe we can finish in the money and if we don’t, we go for whatever we can,” Corrales said. “I was very happy and pleased with the result and I’m very happy with the way he’s training. I think I have a horse.”
A former jockey who won more than 1,000 career races, Corrales plans to give Hole similar instructions on Saturday but will leave the final decision up to his rider.
“I really don’t want to change his style right now but you never know. You can plan a lot of things but sometimes the races change. Pretty much that’s the way I want to run him. I want him to make one run,” he said.
“I’d really like to try this horse on the grass because I think he can run on the grass. I have never tried him on the grass but I might take a chance and lose a race just to see if he can do it.”
