Voodoo Song targets Bernard Baruch on favorite course

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Voodoo Song isn’t finished with Saratoga just yet.

The popular New York-bred, who won the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap here on Aug. 11, will make his next start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap here on Sept. 3, trainer Linda Rice said Wednesday.

Voodoo Song is 5 for 5 at Saratoga, having won all four of his starts here last year, including the Grade 3 Saranac on the second-to-last day of the meet.

Rice and owner Barry Schwartz also were considering running Voodoo Song in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on Sept. 15, but the Bernard Baruch allows Voodoo Song another start over his favorite course and gives him six weeks to the $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 6.

“It’s a good in-between spot to the Shadwell Mile,” Rice said. “I can keep him fit better by running him rather than wait 60 days, so right now, that’s our game plan. He likes the course. Let’s hope it stops raining.”

Rice and Schwartz are hoping to get Voodoo Song to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3.