Ghostzapper has two shots at getting another Queen's Plate winner

Ghostzapper is seeking his third Queen’s Plate winner in the last four years, and he will have two shots when the Canadian classic is renewed this Saturday at Woodbine.

Ghostzapper, the sire of recent Queen’s Plate winners Shaman Ghost (2015) and Holy Helena (2017), will be represented in this year’s Plate by the favored Telekinesis and the maiden Real Dude. Telekinesis, whom Stonestreet Farm purchased for $470,000 as a Keeneland November weanling, comes off a victory in the Plate Trial.

“He’s an extremely beautiful horse, well made,” trainer Mark Casse said. “He was an expensive weanling. As a weanling, I was the underbidder on him for another client, and Stonestreet bought him, and of course I went to [Stonestreet owner Barbara Banke] and said I would really like to train him, and we got him. So, he’s been on our radar since he was very young.”

Frank Stronach stands Ghostzapper at his Adena Springs operation, and has captured the Queen’s Plate four times, including with Ghostzapper’s sire, Awesome Again, in 1997 and the stallion’s progeny Shaman Ghost and Holy Helena. This year, he takes a shot with the homebred Real Dude, who is out of Canadian champion and Queen’s Plate runner-up Ginger Brew. Real Dude is seeking to become the first maiden to win the classic since Scatter the Gold in 2000.

“I really think he can go all day long,” trainer Sid Attard said. “The farther, the better. The owners want to take a shot, and I say, ‘Why not?’”

Stronach also campaigns Plate entrant Silent Poet, who is out of a Ghostzapper mare. Ghostzapper has been emerging as a broodmare sire in recent years, including as the broodmare sire of Triple Crown winner Justify.

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