It’s hard to improve on perfection -- unless you go out and do it again.
Good Cheer puts an unblemished 7-for-7 record on the line Friday in the $500,000 Acorn Stakes (G1) for 3-year-old fillies at Saratoga.
The Acorn is one of four Grade 1 races on the card a day before the Belmont Stakes (G1).
Good Cheer is the class of the field and the overwhelming 1-2 morning-line favorite against six rivals.
Good Cheer’s latest effort was an authoritative win in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) on May 2 over a wet-fast track. She was the 6-5 favorite of the bettors that afternoon, a payoff that looks like a bonanza in retrospect and is several multiples more than the likely Acorn return.
Good Cheer has had plenty of time to recover since the Oaks and should continue her march through the division.
“I thought she came out of the race incredibly well,” trainer Brad Cox said in the aftermath of the Oaks.
That’s not the update rival trainers hoped to hear.
The win by Good Cheer kicked off a memorable weekend for owner-breeder Godolphin Racing as they also captured the Kentucky Derby (G1) the following afternoon with Sovereignty.
“It was a very special weekend,” Godolphin’s director of bloodstock, Michael Banahan, said. “It was something that hadn’t been done in over 70 years for the same owner to win the Oaks and the Derby, and that tells you how difficult it is to do it.”
Good Cheer landed post 2 in the Acorn, which should allow her to settle into a solid stalking position behind expected pacesetters Scottish Lassie, La Cara, Look Forward, and the promising Shred the Gnar.
Trained by Brian Lynch, Shred the Gnar is making only her fourth start and her stakes debut. She has demonstrated solid improvement from start to start and could be the filly best poised for a breakthrough effort. She won her last two races by a combined 13 ½ lengths, so the talent is there.
On Friday, we will learn if she has the class to match.
Only La Cara, Bless the Broken, and Quickick return from the Oaks for another shot at Good Cheer.
La Cara owns the best credentials of the trio with a Grade 1 win in the Ashland on her resume. Unfortunately, she is extremely one-dimensional, needing the lead to be effective.
In a race loaded with speed on paper, La Cara could be up against it.
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
