The race was over soon after it started. The gate opened, and expected front-runner Ghostzapper took the lead as Roses in May tried to keep pace. Ghostzapper never looked back, going half a mile in a very fast 47.11, and then turning for home, dismissing the rest of the field, pulling away to win by 3 widening lengths in track record time of 1:59.02 over Roses in May. Defending champ Pleasantly Perfect put in a good late run to finish third. Funny Cide was 10th, Personal Rush was 6th, and Azeri was fifth.
Winning trainer Bobby Frankel said, "He ran the way I thought he would. This is as big a win as I've has in my career. This is a really good horse. I wanted (Javier Castellano) to ride the horse like he was on the best horse and he did. And he was."
Winning jockey Javier Castellano said, "He broke well and I took him off the rail. There was no question that he wouldn't go wire to wire. He's that sharp. Bobby said whatever you want to do with him, it's your job."
Dale Romans, trainer of second place finisher Roses in May said, "He ran as hard as he could. I'm proud of both of my horses. I'm more disappointed that the other horse (Kitten's Joy) couldn't win. (Roses in May) had a perfect trip but Ghostzapper is a super horse. We picked a bad year to have a top horse in the Classic."
Richard Mandella, trainer of third place finisher Pleasantly Perfect said, "Jerry (Bailey) said he had a tough trip. It's disappointing to come off where we've been. It looked like all the speed was going to run on, but they gook back and bunched it up." Bailey added, "I couldn't ever get him settled and I got hung wide on both turns. He showed me a lot of guts but you can't run 1 1/4 miles on the bridle like that."
Juvenile . Juv.Fillies . Mile . Sprint . Distaff . F&M Turf . Turf . Classic
