Good Cheer odds-on in Acorn; Brown, Pletcher double-handed in Ogden Phipps

The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival kicks up a gear at Saratoga on Friday, with a total of six graded stakes on tap. Fillies and mares take center stage in the three dirt stakes.

Undefeated Kentucky Oaks (G1) heroine Good Cheer is heavily favored in the $500,000 Acorn (G1), while Raging Sea faces a competitive cast in the “Win and You’re In” Ogden Phipps (G1), and Ways and Means tops the $300,000 Bed o’ Roses (G2) for sprinters. 

Acorn (G1) – Race 11, 5:46 p.m. ET

Good Cheer has been installed as the 1-2 favorite on the morning line, a reflection of her utter command over the three-year-old fillies’ division. Trained by Brad Cox, the Godolphin homebred brings a perfect 7-for-7 record into the 1 1/8-mile contest. 

The Kentucky Oaks marked her fifth consecutive stakes win, following the Rags to Riches S., Golden Rod (G2), Rachel Alexandra (G2), and Fair Grounds Oaks (G2). Good Cheer has swept them all by daylight, handling a variety of trips and conditions, and it would be one of the Spa’s historic upsets if she loses her unbeaten status. Regular rider Luis Saez will have to prevent her from being pocketed in post 2. 

Three of her Oaks rivals try again – third-placer Bless the Broken, who would want a sloppy track like the one that boosted her at Churchill Downs; seventh Quickick; and ninth La Cara, who presumably prefers it fast, as in the case of her Ashland (G1) wire job two starts back. 

The other three entrants pose fresh challenges. Shred the Gnar, the 3-1 second choice, makes her stakes debut after crushing her past two for Brian Lynch. Last year’s Frizette (G1) conqueror Scottish Lassie was just overturned in an Aqueduct allowance, but she gets a rider switch to Irad Ortiz Jr. Look Forward, who scored a mild upset in the Eight Belles (G2) on Oaks Day, has yet to win over a route.

Ogden Phipps (G1) – Race 9, 4:28 p.m. ET

In the 2024 edition of this $500,000 race, which offers a fee-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), Raging Sea was fourth to pacesetting stablemate Randomized. But the Chad Brown duo have gone in completely different directions in the interim, and Raging Sea brings stronger claims into Friday’s renewal of the 1 1/8-mile test.

Blossoming with maturity as a daughter of Curlin, Raging Sea went on to win three in a row, notably dethroning champion Idiomatic in the course-and-distance Personal Ensign (G1). Her skein was snapped when second to Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna in the Distaff, but Raging Sea turned the tables in the May 2 La Troienne (G1) at Churchill.

In contrast, Randomized has lost her two ensuing starts, both won by Raging Sea. Fading to fourth after a pace war in the Personal Ensign, Randomized resurfaced with a much better third in the La Troienne. Yet the speedy Nyquist mare does have back class as the winner of the 2023 Alabama (G1) here, and runner-up in that fall’s Distaff. 

Todd Pletcher is likewise double-handed with Grade 1 veterans Candied and Leslie’s Rose. Candied, third to Thorpedo Anna and Raging Sea in the 2024 Distaff, just snapped her losing skid with a vengeance in the Allaire DuPont Distaff. Leslie’s Rose, the 2024 Acorn runner-up, stretches back out after a near-miss third in the Vagrancy (G3). 

Godolphin’s Tarifa is winless since last summer’s Mother Goose (G2), but she did beat Candied when they took the minor awards in the April 18 Doubledogdare (G3). Dorth Vader, most recently fourth in the La Troienne, and Dazzling Move, second in the DuPont, round out the field.

Bed o’ Roses (G2) – Race 6, 2:40 p.m. ET

Ways and Means, heroine of last year’s Test (G1) at this track and seven-furlong trip, rates as the 6-5 favorite on the morning line. The Brown trainee aims to move forward off her comeback third in the Derby City Distaff (G1). Also exiting that Churchill feature is Scylla, who was a belated fourth in her seasonal reappearance. 

Like Ways and Means, Scylla concluded 2024 with a loss in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1). There wasn’t much between them in the bunched-up finish at Del Mar, where Scylla was fourth and Ways and Means checked in a neck away in fifth. But the question here is whether this is really Scylla’s idea trip. The Juddmonte homebred is a Grade 2-winning router, as one would expect for a full sister to Tacitus, and daughter of Tapit and champion Close Hatches. 

Other contenders include Jody’s Pride, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) near-misser and recent Ruffian (G2) winner; the streaking Irish Maxima, who won her third straight in the Distaff (G3) over St. Benedict’s Prep; Miss Justify, fresh off a triumphant return at Aqueduct; and Justique, hoping to rebound from a trailing sixth in the Madison (G1).