Reporting Star can give Voss rare double

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When trainer Elizabeth Voss runs Reporting Star in Saturday’s Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga, she will be attempting to accomplish something even her father, the late Tom Voss, didn’t: win a Grade 1 steeplechase and a Grade 1 flat race in the same summer.

“Geez, don’t even say that,” Voss said Thursday. “I might pass out if it actually happened.”

Tom Voss did win Grade 1 races on both the flat and hurdles, just not in the same year. Jonathan Sheppard twice won Grade 1 races on the flat and jumps in the same year, the last time in 2009.

Elizabeth Voss won the Grade 1 A.P. Smithwick earlier at this meet with the favored Bob Le Beau.

Reporting Star is listed as a 20-1 longshot in the Fourstardave, but he is not without a chance. Reporting Star won the Grade 2 Appleton Stakes at Gulfstream Park this year, beating the likes of Divisidero and Force the Pass. Divisidero came back to beat Reporting Star in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, and Force the Pass is a Grade 1 winner who is also in the Fourstardave.

Reporting Star was trained by Brendan Walsh for those races. The horse was transferred to Voss after the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic. She ran him in the Grade 3 Red Bank at Monmouth on June 5, and he finished last as the 9-5 favorite.

“I think I made a mistake running him there,” Voss said. “He just got up to us, that race came up, and I thought it was a good fit for him. He had a few weeks off after that, regrouped, and he’s coming into this good.”

Voss took blinkers off Reporting Star for the Red Bank in hopes of trying to get the 6-year-old gelding to relax. She is putting the blinkers back on him Saturday.

“I’m going back to what works for him,” Voss said.

Voss also noted that Reporting Star got agitated in the paddock prior to the Red Bank. She has schooled Reporting Star on Monday through Thursday this week.

“He’s fine,” Voss said as she watched Reporting Star school Thursday afternoon before the first race. “He’s a nice horse. We thought we’d give it a shot.”

On Thursday, Reporting Star blew out three furlongs in 37.10 seconds over the Oklahoma training track while wearing the blinkers. Jockey Kendrick Carmouche was aboard for the work, in which Reporting Star pulled away from workmate Proud Music by five lengths.