Shaman Ghost finishes strong to win the Santa Anita Handicap

It’s a scene you don’t see very often, the 84-year-old owner of a race track out in the dirt leading a horse to the winner’s circle. In this case, he also owns the horse.

Frank Stronach, who owns Shaman Ghost, Santa Anita and several other tracks, took the horse’s lead after his 5-year-old won Saturday’s 80th running of the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap.

It was Stronach’s third win in this race, having scored in 2002 and 2003 with Milwaukee Brew.

“It’s a little scary,” winning trainer Jim Jerkens said with a laugh of Stronach’s postrace antics. “But most of the time the horses are tired and they aren’t going to do too much.”

If Shaman Ghost was tired, he didn’t look it running down Midnight Storm in the stretch to win by three-quarters of a length.

Midnight Storm, winner of five of his last six races, went to the lead as expected and led by 1 ½ lengths going into the stretch. What was not necessarily expected, but made the most sense, is Shaman Ghost was forwardly placed hanging close to the leader.

Jockey Javier Castellano, the four-time Eclipse Award winner, had a strategy.

“I knew there wasn’t a lot of speed in the race so I just wanted to focus on the horse on the lead, Midnight Storm, and keep track of him,” Castellano said. “I knew I had it won at the eighth pole. I asked him for full speed and he gave it to me, right away. I said, ‘Yes.’”

Shaman Ghost didn’t catch Midnight Storm until about 100 yards to go in the 1 1/4-mile race and then he flew past him for the winning margin.

Shaman Ghost, the slight favorite of a crowd of 29,412, paid $4.60, $2.60 and $2.40. Midnight Storm paid $3.00 and $2.80 while Follow Me Crev returned $5.00.

Following them in the nine-horse field were Hi Happy, Isotherm, Hard Aces, Twentytwentyvision, Gangster and Imperative.

It was Jerkens’ second Big ‘Cap start and first win. He finished third last year with Effinex, who was compromised by a case of the hives on race day.

“[Winning this race] means a lot. It really does,” Jerkens said. “I grew up on the East Coast but I always liked the racing out here. I was always hoping I could be a part of it someday and to come out here with a good horse.”

Shaman Ghost pushed his lifetime earnings to almost $3.5 million. He put himself on everyone’s radar earlier this year finishing second to Arrogate in the $12-million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream.

Stronach, asked if he usually wanders out on the track to grab his horse, replied: “Every chance I get.”

Other stakes

In addition to the star-crossed San Felipe Stakes, won by Mastery before suffering a possible career-threatening injury, were two other $400,000 stakes races.

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3-year-old is pulled up after injury by jockey Mike Smith

Denman’s Call won the seven-furlong Triple Bend Stakes by a length over heavily favored Maochistic. Denman’s Call, trained by Doug O’Neill and ridden by Tyler Baze, ran down the favorite in the stretch to win by a length. Denman’s Call paid $35.40 to win.

In the Frank E. Kilroe Mile, Bal A Bali, ridden by Castellano and trained by Richard Mandella, caught What A View to win by a head in the turf race. Bbal a Bali paid $21.20 to win. Dortmund, the 2015 Santa Anita Derby winner, finished sixth and last in his grass debut.

john.cherwa@latimes.com

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