Shaman Ghost owns surface advantage in Prince of Wales

The top three finishers from the July 5 Queen's Plate will have a rematch in Tuesday's C$500,000 Prince of Wales at Fort Erie. The second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Prince of Wales is contested at 1 3/16 miles on the dirt and has an early evening post time of 7:39 p.m. (EDT).

There has been some disconnect between the Queen's Plate and the Prince of Wales in the past decade. Since 2007, when the Queen's Plate was first run on a synthetic surface, only two Plate winners have subsequently placed in the Prince of Wales. No horse has won both races since 2003, when the recently-deceased Wando swept the country's Triple Crown.

All of this could change as Plate winner Shaman Ghost rides a four-race win streak into the Prince of Wales and is the 7-5 early favorite to make it five. The son of Ghostzapper was unplaced in his first three outings, but subsequently broke his maiden at Gulfstream, won an allowance at Keeneland, and then captured the Marine (G3) at Woodbine prior to his 1 1/4-length success in the Queen's Plate.

Shaman Ghost has the added advantage of being the only the horse in the field with a victory on dirt, with the Gulfstream and Keeneland scores both occurring on the main track.

Danish Dynaformer squeezed in a victory in the Plate Trial between a third-place finish in the Marine and a second in the Queen's Plate. The son of Dynaformer has never run on dirt, but turned in a solid breeze over Woodbine's dirt training track last Tuesday, working five furlongs in 1:01.

Conquest Boogaloo, eighth in the Marine before finishing third in the Plate Trial and Queen's Plate, is a typical slow breaker who has several lengths to find on the top pair. The same can also be said for Field of Courage, fifth in the Plate Trial last time, and Breaking Lucky, who petered out to fifth after making a middle move in the Queen's Plate.

Cut to the Chase appears overmatched, but is intriguing from the persepctive of being the lone speed on paper. However, he probably lacks the class to take advantage of that potentially favorable scenario. The field is rounded out by Scorch, who remains a maiden after five starts.

TwinSpires players have an opportunity to earn 20X TSC Elite Points on all of your Fort Erie bets every Tuesday during the meet. Complete details: https://www.twinspires.com/earn-20x-points-tuesdays-fort-erie

(Shaman Ghost photo: WEG/Michael Burns Photography)