Ghostly Act looks to win maiden against tough California-breds

ARCADIA, Calif. – A quiet Friday at Santa Anita begins with a maiden standout in the first race and ends with a turf raffle in the ninth. The understated nine-race program is made up of maiden, claiming, and starter-allowance races, including the most probable winner right off the bat.

Race-1 entrant Ghostly Act will be tough to beat if he reproduces his recent runner-up effort in a similar turf mile for California-bred maidens. Debbie Winick trains the Harris Farms homebred, whose rider Kyle Frey rated him in his initial turf route last out.

Ghostly Act was initially reluctant to settle and pulled hard when Frey took hold. But the Acclamation gelding eventually relaxed and was raced at the back of the six-runner field. He rallied inside on the far turn, stalled briefly behind a rival, angled outside, and finished well for second.

Ghostly Act’s rally – a final quarter-mile in 22.73 seconds, according to the DRF Formulator race chart – enabled him to outrun every rival except heavily favored pacesetter Stamp My Passport. Ghostly Act was the only closer to make up significant ground; the one-two pacesetters finished first and third.

The second-place finish was an ideal schooling lesson for Ghostly Act, a 3-year-old gelding who is the only runner on the Friday card not scheduled to receive Lasix. After three successive runner-up finishes, and five starts overall, the California-bred maiden should be tough to beat.

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The main rival for Ghostly Act may be California Bay, a California Chrome sibling to four stakes winners stretching out from a creditable fourth-place sprint debut. Others in the field include six-start maidens Johnny Paycheck and Silver N Black.

The remainder of the Friday card has a Juan Hernandez feel. The circuit’s leading jockey, Hernandez will try to extend his weekend momentum. He won five stakes over the Sunday and Monday programs, including two Grade 1s – Defunded in the Hollywood Gold Cup and Exaulted in the Shoemaker Mile.

Hernandez rides seven races Friday; his mounts are all likely to start as first or second favorite. If an over/under wager was offered on Friday wins by Hernandez, a reasonable oddsmaker might peg the over/under total at 2.5 wins. His mounts include Hennys Crazy Train, race 2; Tom Horn, race 4; Free and Humble, race 5; Charlotte Harbor, race 6; She’s Got a Way, race 7; and My Man Bags, race 8.

For bettors, maiden-claiming starter Tom Horn may be the most appealing Hernandez mount as he drops in class with the speed to wire race 4. Tom Horn’s trainer, Steve Miyadi, does well with droppers from special weight to California-bred maiden claiming. According to DRF Formulator, since fall 2020 the trainer started 10 such runners on the local circuit – four wins, three seconds, one third.

Hernandez also rides race 9, a wide-open starter allowance turf scramble at 1 1/8 mile and one-eighth. Birth of Cool, runner-up by a nose last out at one mile, stretches out and will be ridden by Hernandez for the first time. His main rivals are Tallis and Keen to Go.

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