Ghostzapper Is Out of Oaklawn Handicap

Ghostzapper, horse of the year in 2004, won’t make his 2005 debut in the Oaklawn Handicap at Hot Springs, Ark., on April 9 because of a sinus infection.

Trainer Bobby Frankel said Ghostzapper was likely to run in the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park on May 30 or the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs on June 18. Ghostzapper, stabled at Churchill, arrived there with a fever last weekend after having been shipped from Palm Meadows, a training facility in Boynton Beach, Fla. Frankel said that Ghostzapper’s high temperature had stabilized.

Ghostzapper hasn’t run since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 30. He won all four starts last year and hasn’t lost a race since August 2003. Overall, the 5-year-old has won seven of nine starts.