Good Cheer

SARATOGA SPRINGS - As Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott watched Sovereignty (Into Mischief) gobble up ground on the Oklahoma Training Track from afar Saturday morning, his mind drifted back to maybe the best horse he ever trained. Sovereignty, working for the first time since winning the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on July 26, went four furlongs in :48.99 (117/65) and galloped out in 1:02 2/5. Assistant trainer Neil Poznansky was on board. Mott had accompanied Sovereignty to the Oklahoma aboard his pony, Rocky. "Coming to the wire,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--The work is done. Now, Sovereignty (Into Mischief) waits for the $500,000 GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga Race Course next Saturday. Winner of the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes, Sovereignty's connections are confident he is ready to make his first start since that Triple Crown campaign. Saturday, morning at 7:30, Sovereignty had his final work for the Jim Dandy--and third since the Belmont--going four furlongs in 49.82 (12/41) under Neil Poznansky, the assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Sovereignty worked by himself; in...

Saturday at Saratoga, while stuck in Mother Nature's crosshairs, provided trainer Chad Brown a tenth GI Diana Stakes victory with Excellent Truth (Ire) (Cotai Glory {GB}) and saw 'TDN Rising Star' Far Bridge (English Channel) dominate the GII Bowling Green Stakes. With their charges emerging from the efforts in good shape, the connections are tentatively looking to the future. In the Brown camp, Excellent Truth's effort only served to strengthen what the conditioner already believed going into the contest--that his mare was one of the best in the country. After...

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Next Wednesday, 2024 Horse of the Year & 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) is expected to be in Saratoga. Trainer Kenny McPeek said she will ship to the Spa from Kentucky along with Mystik Dan (Goldencents), last year's GI Kentucky Derby winner. Thorpedo Anna is coming off a three-length win in the GII, $500,000 Fleur de Lis Stakes at Churchill Downs last Saturday. "She is fine, she is like a rocket ship," McPeek said by phone from Kentucky Thursday. "She loves her work; she loves...

Sovereignty (Into Mischief) is on top. He got there by winning two of the most important races on the calendar for 3-year-olds. With his wins in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes, he leads the way because this is a sport where they're always asking, "What have you done for me lately?" But that doesn't necessarily mean that he's the best 3-year-old to have run this year. The last time Sovereignty lost was in the Mar. 29 GI Curlin Florida Derby. He didn't have any excuses. He just...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The graveyard of champions strikes again. Tracy Farmer homebred La Cara (Street Sense) shot out to the front and never looked back, splashing home a three-length, wire-to-wire winner in Friday's GI DK Horse Acorn S. at rainy Saratoga. Look Forward (Bolt d'Oro) chased her around the track in second, finishing a neck better than third-place finisher Scottish Lassie (McKinzie). Previously unbeaten GI Kentucky Oaks heroine and 1-4 favorite Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) suffered her first career defeat finishing fifth. Sent to the front by Dylan Davis,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When the phone rang, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith was on the other end. "I'm on the treadmill," Smith said. Of course he was. Smith, who will ride 'TDN Rising Star' Rodriguez (Authentic) in Saturday's $2-million GI Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, has always been obsessed with working out. And, as he closes in on his 59th birthday (Aug. 10), he has no intentions of pulling the plug on his two-hour, five-day-a week workout schedule. Nor are there any plans to hang up his...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Undefeated GI Kentucky Oaks heroine and Godolphin homebred Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) will put her perfect seven-for-seven record on the line as she takes on six rivals in Friday's GI DK Horse Acorn S. at the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course. The Acorn is one of six graded stakes races on Friday's 14-race program, which also features three other Grade I events--the GI Ogden Phipps S., a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar; the GI New...

Bidding is currently open for the 2025 Inglis Digital USA May Sale, featuring 30 offerings, including fillies closely related to both parts of this year's GI Kentucky Oaks exacta. The first lot will close Wednesday, May 28 at 2 p.m. ET, with subsequent listings hammering in three-minute increments. Among the offerings are nine racing or racing/broodmare prospects, eight yearlings, three broodmare prospects, eight broodmares, and two no-guarantee stallion seasons. "We have a really good group on offer in our May Sale," said Kyle Wilson, Senior Director of Sales and Recruiting for...

To adapt Shakespeare on Cleopatra: "age cannot wither him, nor custom stale his infinite variety." To be enjoying an Indian summer like this, however, Medaglia d'Oro has had to stem what often proves an inexorable tide once a stallion enters the evening of his career. For the ageism so common among breeders can be self-fulfilling. Any stallion still operating at 26 must have shown an unequivocal prowess over the years. That being so, however, he will typically have produced fashionable sons to erode his own market share. And once enough...

Godolphin's GI Longines Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) returned to training Tuesday at Churchill Downs and trainer Brad Cox said the GI Acorn Stakes on Belmont Stakes weekend at Saratoga could be her next target. "I thought she came out of the race incredibly well," Cox said. "If all goes to plan the next couple of weeks, we're looking at the Acorn for her." Good Cheer, now undefeated in seven starts, splashed home a convincing winner in the Oaks. Cox had a strong Kentucky Derby weekend, saddling Liberal...

NEWMARKET, UK -- "Awesome, awesome, awesome," chanted William Buick after galloping off across Newmarket Heath with Desert Flower, beyond the winning post, into history. When Good Cheer slipped through the slop at Churchill Downs on Friday evening, few could have predicted how many more cheers were to come for the global Godolphin team, in the Kentucky gloom and the chilly Suffolk sunshine.  A Classic double double, the breadth of which has surely not been seen before, despite the extraordinary achievements of some of Godolphin's regular rivals among the vast owner-breeder...