Champion Three-Year-Old Male: Shaman Ghost

“It’s a prestigious race and it’s always something you want to cross off the bucket list,” Brian Lynch said. “We can finally tick that one off.”

Shaman Ghost recorded four wins from six starts in 2015, which included stakes wins in the Queen’s Plate and the Grade 3 Marine. He also ran second in the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, held in July at Fort Erie.

But as a 2-year old, Shaman Ghost’s career on the racetrack started slowly. He was fourth in his debut in October 2014 at Woodbine, and then ran sixth at Gulfstream Park in his next start. In his first start as a 3-year old, he was off the board again, finishing fourth on the Gulfstream Park turf.

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Lynch chalked those early results up to an education process.

“He was just a green horse that was learning the game,” he said.

After running the previous three races with blinkers, Lynch opted to take the blinkers off for Shaman Ghost’s fourth start, and a four-race win streak soon followed. Shaman Ghost broke his maiden in that fourth start going two turns on the dirt at Gulfstream Park, and then continued his winning run on the dirt at Keeneland in an allowance race.

“When he was a young horse he had a tendency to run a bit squirrely and the blinkers got him focused,” Lynch said. “When it came to racing, I didn’t feel like he needed them so I just took them off. Once he started winning, we just left them off.”

The win streak continued in Shaman Ghost’s stakes debut in the Grade 3 Marine at Woodbine last May. In the first of three head-to-head battles with Danish Dynaformer, Shaman Ghost rallied down the stretch to win the Marine by a half-length. Shaman Ghost went straight to the Queen’s Plate after winning the Marine, and caught Danish Dynaformer in the final strides to win the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.

For owner/breeder Frank Stronach, Shaman’s Ghost’s Queen’s Plate victory represented the third of his career, but first since 1997 when Awesome Again rallied from off the pace under jockey Mike Smith. Stronach also won the Queen’s Plate in 1994 with Basqueian.

“I’ve won many great stakes races over the years, but to win the Queen’s Plate was very special,” he said.

Shaman Ghost tried to keep his Triple Crown dream alive in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie, but he couldn’t get to the line ahead of Breaking Lucky.

Still, it was a thrill ride for his connections, highlighted by a victory in Canada’s most famous horse race and recognition as the country’s top 3-year-old male.