Sedbury's Ghost tunes up for King's Plate with sharp Plate Trial victory

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Sedbury’s Ghost stamped himself as a serious contender for next month’s $1 million King’s Plate with a handy score under Ryan Munger in Sunday’s $150,500 Plate Trial Stakes at Woodbine.

A son of 2015 Queen’s Plate winner Shaman Ghost, Sedbury’s Ghost raced about five lengths off a quick pace on the backstretch in the nine-furlong test for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

Scorching shadowed the leading Unbridled Weather before assuming command on the far turn. Sedbury’s Ghost found room after longshot Forty N Five went around him at the quarter pole and then mounted an eye-catching rally to hit the front at the eighth pole. He went on to prevail by 1 1/4 lengths over a closing Notorious Gangster, who was the slight 9-5 favorite over third-place finisher Scorching.

The time was 1:50.37.

Barbara Minshall trains Sedbury’s Ghost ($16.80), who earned $90,000 in his first stakes victory for owner-breeder Yawen Wu. The flashy chestnut wasn’t beaten far when fourth in his previous start in the Grade 3 Marine.

“I liked the pace, in a way, because I knew he’d close,” Minshall said. “Ryan found a good trip. Right when I first started training him, I told Yawen that I think she had a pretty nice horse here. He’s Ontario-sired, so we got to do a couple of those races. I thought he a little bit of a troubled trip in the Marine and could have won that as well as any of the horses. I was real confident going in here. He had trained spectacular.”

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