King's Plate pedigree profile: Friendly Ghost

Friendly Ghost

Gelding by Outwork – Kin’s Ghost, by Ghostzapper

Bred in Ontario by Phoenix Rising Farms ($35,134 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Ontario Premier yearling purchase by Sue Leslie)

Never worse than third in three starts, Friendly Ghost now eyes a major series of three, going in the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the King’s Plate.

Outwork, winner of the Grade 1 Wood Memorial, was one of the early standouts for champion juvenile Uncle Mo, who quickly emerged as a classic sire, with 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and 2022 Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal. Outwork’s own best runners are Grade 1-winning juvenile fillies Brightwork and Leave No Trace and multiple stakes winners At the Spa, Outadore, and Trojan Tale.

Friendly Ghost is the first winner from three starters out of the placed mare Kin’s Ghost. She is a half-sister to Woodbine Oaks winner Kin’s Concerto, and her other close relatives include graded stakes winners Essential Edge, Flameaway, Roses for Debra, and Tiz a Slam. Several Grade/Group 1 winners appear deeper in the family, with the most prominent of those in North America being Breeders’ Cup Turf winner and Eclipse Award champion Northern Spur.

Ghostzapper, a versatile sire and quite successful in Canada in his own right, has emerged as a solid broodmare sire, with his daughters producing Triple Crown winner Justify and Eclipse champions Drefong and Up to the Mark.