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A VERY RARE  PROGRAM MINT UNUSED/UNMARKED BELMONT PARK FRIDAY JUNE 20, 2003

GHOSTZAPPER HORSE OF THE YEAR AND HALL OF FAMER was virtually unknown this day.

GHOSTZAPPER was THE DAM SIRE OF THE UNDEFEATED 2018 TRIPLE CROWN WINNER JUSTIFY

The cover has artwork of AFFIRMED & ALYDAR (2003 was the 25th anniversary of their famed Triple Crown rivary)

This near 21 YEAR OLD program was a Friday program with a track attendance of just 4,146 people
So not many of these programs in existence (perhaps few were kept at all!)

GHOSTZAPPER was known by very few and at the time nobody knew they were witnessing a SUPERSTAR which after all was said and done, was said to be the best horse to come along since SPECTACULAR BID!

This program has GHOSTZAPPER in the 7th race with Jockey JAVIER CASTELLANO riding him for the first time! Likely the best horse that Javier has ever rode and Javier has been inducted into The Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame. So both horse, rider and trainer are in the Hall of Fame!

The race is a 6 Furlong Allowance race Non Winners of 1 other than ....

GHOSTZAPPER won this race..his 2nd career win! He won easily from last to first in a 6 horse field winning by 3 14 lengths in 1:09 1/5. It was a piece of cake...a walk in the park for "Zapper" He went off 95 cents to the dollar ( should have been 5 cents to the dollar!) The chart comment was rolled home outside.

GHOSTZAPPER would continue on to win 7 of his next 8 career races...all major stakes and proved to be one of the greatest horse in decades! He won 9 of his 11 career races earning more than 3.4 million dollars.

GHOSTZAPPER won THE 2004 BREEDERS CUP CLASSIC in 1:59 FLAT for the 1 1/4 Mile. Still the fastest ever run!

In fact it was said that Ghostzapper had the fastest beyer speed figures of any horse in history since the advent of speed figures! No surprise that Ghostzapper was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot!

He was THE 2004 HORSE OF THE YEAR.

GHOSTZAPPER, now retired is doing exceptionally well as a SIRE and has been inducted into THE THOROUGHBRED RACING HALL OF FAME

This program represents his first start as a 3 year old and his first race after a 6 month layoff. It's his 3rd career race in a career where he won 9 of 11 and quickly inducted into the racing hall of fame as an all time great! This was his 2nd. win and he had never even been entered in a stakes race yet!

GHOSTZAPPER; one of the greatest horses of all time was trained by the late great HALL OF FAME trainer BOBBY FRANKEL.

Frankel trained many champions and his horses earned more than 1/4 billion$$$ in his 40 plus year career......The following is from the Hall of Fame website...notice Ghostzapper is listed first!

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Bobby Frankel began his equine career as a hot walker at Belmont and Aqueduct. His first victory as a trainer came in November 1966 at Aqueduct. Throughout the next 43 years, Frankel trained 3,654 winners for purses of $227,947,775. At the time of his death in 2009, Frankel ranked second all time in North American earnings and 14th in victories.

In 1972, Frankel moved his operation to California where that same year he set a record with 60 winners at the Hollywood Park meeting. He was that meet’s leading trainer eight more times and achieved the same feat at Santa Anita (5), Oak Tree (6) and Del Mar (4). He trained 10 Eclipse Champions and won the Eclipse Award for training five times.

Although he failed to produce any Breeders’ Cup victories in his first 38 starts, Frankel eventually trained six Breeders’ Cup winners, including Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Ghostzapper. Frankel’s best season came in 1993 when he trained 25 Grade 1 stakes winners, led American trainers in money won and won the Eclipse Award. He led all trainers in earnings three times (1993, 2002 and 2003).

Frankel’s most significant horses include Ghostzapper, Bertrando, Possibly Perfect, Wandesta, Marquetry, Intercontinental, Medaglia d’Oro, Ventura, Empire Maker, Ryafan, Squirtle Squirt, Aldebaran, Ginger Punch, Skimming, Sightseek, Exbourne, Pay the Butler, Toussard, Val des Bois, Tinner’s Way, Peace Rules, Leroidesanimaux, Stardom Bound, and Linda’s Chief.

Frankel won numerous stakes races multiple times, including the Pacific Classic (6), Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap (6), Eddie Read Handicap (7), Santa Anita Handicap (3), Woodward Stakes (4), Santa Ana Handicap (7), Yellow Ribbon Stakes (5), Arlington Handicap (4), Forego Handicap (4), Whitney Handicap (2), and the Matriarch Stakes (8). His international victories included the Japan Cup, the E.P. Taylor Stakes and the Queen’s Plate.

GHOSTZAPPER..just a Maiden winner going into this race..he wins it on his way to a Hall of Fame Career which he became 2004 HORSE OF THE YEAR and won the fastest Breeders Cup Classic ever run with a sub 2 minute 1 1/4 mile!

GHOSTZAPPER....one of the fastest ever to set foot on a racetrack...his career bayer #'s were the fastest of any horse since the advent of beyers (speed figures)
HORSE OF THE YEAR in 2004 and now joins all the legends (just a little over 200) in THE THOROUGHBRED RACING HALL OF FAME

The following is from the Hall of Fame website..GHOSTZAPPER ..the "ONLY" horse to be inducted in 2012.

Bred in Kentucky by owner Frank Stronach at Adena Springs, Ghostzapper (Awesome Again—Baby Zip, by Deputy Minister) was one of the most spectacular racehorses of the 21^st century’s first decade.
Trained by Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel, Ghostzapper broke his maiden in his career debut at Hollywood Park in November of 2002. He made only one other start that year, finishing fourth in an allowance race at Santa Anita. It was the only time in his 11-race career in which Ghostzapper finished out of the money.
As a 3-year-old, Ghostzapper won an allowance at Belmont Park and one at Saratoga Race Course before finishing third in the King’s Bishop at Saratoga, which was his second and final career defeat. Ghostzapper closed out his 2003 campaign with his first Grade 1 victory in the Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont in September.
An injury kept Ghostzapper off the track until July 4, 2004, but his return to the races was spectacular. Ghostzapper secured an easy victory in the Grade 2 Tom Fool Handicap then romped by 10¾ lengths in the Grade 3 Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park. His jaw-dropping performance in the 1⅛-mile Iselin earned Ghostzapper a Beyer Speed Figure of 128, the highest figure in the history of the American turf for a non-sprinting distance.
Ghostzapper followed the Iselin with a spectacular victory in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes over a strong field that included Saint Liam, the 2005 Horse of the Year. With regular rider Javier Castellano in the irons, Ghostzapper concluded his 4-year-old season with a remarkable effort in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Lone Star Park in Texas. In a star-studded field that included Azeri, Funny Cide, Birdstone, Perfect Drift, Pleasantly Perfect, and Roses in May, Ghostzapper drew away and covered the 1¼-mile distance in 1:59.02 to set a track and Breeders’ Cup Classic record.
The 4-for-4 campaign garnered Ghostzapper Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male honors in the 2004 Eclipse Award voting. He returned to the races in late May of 2005, winning the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. Ghostzapper was retired a couple weeks later with a hairline fracture in his left front ankle. He closed out his career on a six-race win streak to finalize a record of 9-0-1 from 11 starts with earnings of $3,446,120. Ghostzapper currently resides as a stallion at Stronach’s Adena Springs in Paris, Ky.
Ghostzapper was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 2012.

GOOD LUCK BIDDING!