Ruidoso-based Runaway Ghost to test deeper waters in Grade 2 Stephen Foster
Runaway Ghost is scheduled to spend his summer chasing graded stakes races, with the first target the Grade 2, $600,000 Stephen Foster.
“That’s what we’re aiming for right now,” trainer Todd Fincher said Wednesday.
The Stephen Foster, which is June 15 at Churchill Downs, will be run at a mile and an eighth. Runaway Ghost has made two starts at the distance and won them both, first taking the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby in 2018, then the $150,000 Sunland Park Handicap in his most recent start May 4.
Runaway Ghost is now based at Ruidoso Downs where he worked five-eighths in a bullet 1:01.60 on May 26. Fincher said the horse will ship to Churchill about three or four days in advance of the Stephen Foster.
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“He worked good, just by himself,” Fincher said.
Runaway Ghost was a 5 1/4-length winner of the Sunland Park Handicap, with Lookin At Lee running second and American Dubai, a past winner of the race, finishing third. Runaway Ghost earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 92 for what was his third stakes win in four starts in 2019.
“He was impressive,” Fincher said of Ruanway Ghost. “The pace wasn’t that fast and he was up close, chasing a really nice horse in American Dubai. Then Lookin at Lee, also a nice horse – ran second in the Kentucky Derby – came running up on his flank and he just accelerated. I was very happy with that.”
Fincher said another target for Runaway Ghost later this summer is the Grade 2, $200,000 San Diego, a 1 1/16-mile race to be run July 20 at Del Mar. The right kind of performance could set the horse up for a start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at the same track Aug. 17.
“We’re just trying to see if he can fit with the big boys or not,” said Fincher.
Runaway Ghost has won six stakes in his 11-race career and has earnings of $744,224. He is a son of Ghostzapper and the seven-time stakes-winning mare Rose’s Desert. Runaway Ghost races for his breeder, Joe Peacock.
