Grade 1 Winner Voodoo Song Retired from Racing

Barry and Sheryl Schwartz announced Sept. 16 the retirement of their homebred grade 1 winner Voodoo Song, a 6-year-old son of English Channel , and have begun looking for a place to start his stud career with the help of Nicoma Bloodstock.

"You breed a lot of horses, and with each crop you hope you have a good one. It's not that you're surprised to get a good one, but you're thrilled that he's grown into the kind of horse you can get excited about," said Barry Schwartz of Voodoo Song, who won or placed in seven black-type stakes and delivered his best performance in the 2018 Fourstardave Handicap (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course in which he beat grade 1 winners Divisidero , Heart to Heart , and Yoshida .

Voodoo Song showed an affinity for Saratoga, where he won four consecutive races in 2017 at 3 that included his first black-type win in the Saranac Stakes (G3T), in which he beat eventual Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar. At 4, he strung together another pair of consecutive stakes victories in the Forbidden Apple Stakes at Belmont Park and Fourstardave. He was retired with an 8-4-1 record out of 26 starts and earned $954,350.

"I love frontrunning grass horses. … Everyone takes back in grass races. It's been the nature of grass racing and the world forever. I love those horses that go to the front and keep running," Schwartz said of his campaigner that won three stakes in gate-to-wire fashion.

The Schwartzes bred Voodoo Song in New York in the name of their Stonewall Farm out of their stakes winner Mystic Chant, a daughter of Unbridled's Song whom they bought as a yearling for $200,000 and won the Open Mind Stakes. As a broodmare, Mystic Chant has produced eight winners from eight to race, including stakes-placed Singapore Trader (Flatter ).

Mystic Chant is a half sister to multiple graded-placed stakes winner Mystic Soul, who is the dam of stakes winner Encryption, who placed in three graded stakes.

Voodoo Song's sire leads the North American turf sires standings with more than $3.2 million in progeny earnings. The Calumet Farm stallion has sired seven black-type winners this year, including five graded stakes winners. For his career, English Channel has sired 52 black-type winners, including 28 graded stakes winners, and six champions.