Ghostzapper returns in Tom Fool

ELMONT, N.Y. - On Sunday at Belmont Park, Ghostzapper, who looked like the real deal last year, is back in action for the first time since winning the Grade 1 Vosburgh against older horses in September.

Ghostzapper, with Javier Castellano aboard, is the likely favorite over four others in the Grade 2, $150,000 Tom Fool. He is the 119-pound highweight.

Ghostzapper's challengers in the seven-furlong race are Lion Tamer and Eye of the Tiger, both graded winners, and Unforgettable Max and Aggadan.

looked spectacular winning the 6 1/2-furlong Vosburgh by 6 1/2 lengths. He also won allowance races at Belmont and Saratoga last year and was third in the Grade 1 King's Bishop.

Trainer Bobby Frankel opted to skip the Breeders' Cup Sprint because he believed Ghostzapper's closing style would work against him at Santa Anita.

Ghostzapper's 2004 campaign would have started earlier, but he bruised a foot in April and lost some time.

"He's pretty fit," said Frankel, who won the Tom Fool with last year's champion sprinter, Aldebaran. "I still don't know how far he wants to go; maybe even further than this."

Ghostzapper drew post 4.

, undefeated in four starts at seven furlongs, is coming off a fifth-place finish as the favorite in the Westchester on May 5. Todd Pletcher, Lion Tamer's trainer, said he partly blames the effort in the one-mile Westchester on a shipping nightmare. A couple of days before the race, Lion Tamer flew to New York from Kentucky, and what should have been a four-hour trip turned into a 14-hour adventure because of bad weather.

"It was clearly not his best race," Pletcher said. "He really has run excellent races at seven furlongs and runs great fresh."

John Velazquez rides Lion Tamer from the rail.

The field is light on speed, so Unforgettable Max figures to be on or near the early lead.

Unforgettable Max has been training fabulously and is coming off a sharp effort at Monmouth in the two-turn Frisk Me Now on May 30. Unforgettable Max set a solid pace and finished first in the mile race, but was disqualified for interference and placed last.

"I'm really looking forward to the seven-eighths," said Bruce Levine, Unforgettable Max's trainer. Jerry Bailey, who has won three of the last four runnings of the Tom Fool, rides Unforgettable Max.

Eye of the Tiger has lost nine starts since winning the Grade 3 Affirmed at Hollywood in June 2003. Aggadan earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 109 in an allowance race in his last start.