Distinctive colt Southern Phantom gets first afternoon test

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Southern Phantom has certainly caught people’s attention because of his looks. Saturday, we’ll find out if there’s more to the story.

Southern Phantom, the 2-year-old with the all-white face and two different colored eyes, makes his career debut in the sixth race at Saratoga going 5 1/2 furlongs.

“He’s been famous since he came out of the womb,” trainer Eric Guillot said Thursday. “He’s got a good mind because of that.”

Southern Phantom, a son of Bodemeister, is listed as a bay colt. His entire face is white, however. He has one blue eye and one brown. He was named in an online contest sponsored by Blood-Horse. He has been profiled on several upstate New York television stations and in the Albany Times Union.

Guillot said Southern Phantom wasn’t showing him much early on in his training. But after Guillot put a set of blinkers on him, he has fired two bullet workouts out of his last four moves, including a 47.40 half-mile work out of the gate on July 13.

He will a wear a white set of blinkers in the race, Guillot said.

“On that beautiful white face I didn’t want to put no blinkers, but I had to,” said Guillot, who noted that Southern Phantom is a June foal. “He started coming around. But Asmussen’s got a monster in there. I’d be running that one in the Sanford.”

Guillot was referring to Nitrous, a horse trained by Steve Asmussen, who finished second, beaten a neck in his debut at Churchill Downs.

Saturday’s maiden race features several other promising colts, including Binary, Cromwell Avenue, Puttheglassdown, Fed Fever, and Coast, who has been relegated to the also-eligible list.