Shaman Ghost's work turns bumpy

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Shaman Ghost worked five furlongs in 1:01.51 on Thursday over the Saratoga main track, but afterward, Jimmy Jerkens wasn’t uttering the familiar trainers’ refrain of, “It was just what I wanted.”

Instead, a refreshingly candid Jerkens said, “It was disappointing.”

The work, done after the 8:45 a.m. renovation break, did not go smoothly as Shaman Ghost prepares for the Grade 1 Woodward on Sept. 2.

First, as Shaman Ghost was galloping through the stretch, another horse got loose on the backside. The lights that alert the exercise riders of an incident on the track came on, and exercise rider Kelvin Pahal had to pull up Shaman Ghost. The loose horse was quickly corralled, but Shaman Ghost appeared to get a little agitated as he waited for the commotion to quell.

Shortly thereafter, Pahal got Shaman Ghost on the move again. Shaman Ghost broke off at the five-furlong pole, but he wasn’t far behind a Chad Brown team of workers. Pahal decided to put Shaman Ghost three to four paths wide so he wouldn’t take dirt from the team and would go by the horses in the stretch if he wanted.

Instead, Shaman Ghost, with his tail swishing, finished the move evenly and didn’t get to the Brown pair while finishing his last three furlongs in 36.97 seconds.

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“He ended up being really wide to go around,” Jerkens said. “He probably should have just kept him behind them. It got messed up.”

Jerkens said that having the start of Shaman Ghost’s work interrupted due to the loose horse “might have got him all cranky.”

“Who knows?” he said. “I really don’t know what to make of it.”

There is still plenty of time to get more workouts into Shaman Ghost for the Woodward. Shaman Ghost, who won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in March, has not run since finishing second to Keen Ice in the Suburban at Belmont Park on July 8.