Unbeaten Good Cheer much the best in Rachel Alexandra

Godolphin’s homebred Good Cheer remained undefeated, and reiterated her status as a serious Kentucky Oaks (G1) contender, by dominating Saturday’s $282,000 Rachel Alexandra (G2) at Fair Grounds.

Bet down to odds of 1-20 in a four-horse field, the Brad Cox filly was trapped on the inside for a time, but she was too classy to be contained in a pocket. Good Cheer broke free and surged to a 6 1/4-length victory, extending her record to a perfect 5-for-5.

“I was not worried because I know I have a lot of horse,” winning rider Luis Saez told TwinSpires.com’s James Scully.

“If I let her really run, she should have won with more lengths.”

The Rachel Alexandra field was reduced by key scratches. Simply Joking, the unbeaten winner of the Silverbulletday S., and Demoiselle (G2) runner-up Ballerina d’Oro would have been expected to provide more competition for Good Cheer. When Anonima was also withdrawn, only three rivals were left, all overmatched on paper.

The defections also affected the points allocation. Pursuant to a new rule in effect for this year’s Road to the Kentucky Oaks, a Championship Series race with four or fewer starters will be worth just half of the originally scheduled points.

Thus Good Cheer pocketed 25 points (instead of 50). Even so, that was enough to propel her to the top of the Oaks leaderboard with a total of 45. Good Cheer previously scored points in last fall’s Rags to Riches S. and Golden Rod (G2) at Churchill Downs.

Kicking off her sophomore campaign here, Good Cheer was confidently handled by Saez. The bay broke from the rail and settled behind the modest pace set by Gowells Delight through fractions of :24.30, :48.35, and 1:13.19. Aledean chased in second, and Bless the Broken flanked Good Cheer to keep the favorite bottled up.

At the top of the lane, Good Cheer was on hold awaiting room, and the opportunity was not long in coming. As soon as she had the space to deploy her stride, she overwhelmed Gowells Delight and completed 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.12.

Gowells Delight held second, picking up 12.5 points to increase her overall tally to 16.5. Another 1 1/2 lengths astern came Bless the Broken, who collared Aledean by a neck. Bless the Broken’s third-place effort netted 7.5 points, for a total of 17.5, and Aledean received five points for rounding out the quartet.

Godolphin was winning the Rachel Alexandra for the third straight year. Pretty Mischievous prevailed in 2023, en route to her Kentucky Oaks laurel and divisional championship, while Tarifa scored in 2024. Tarifa was trained by Cox, who is now a four-time winner of this race, after sending out eventual Oaks champion Monomoy Girl (2018) as well as Turnerloose (2022).

By Medaglia d’Oro, the same sire as race honoree Rachel Alexandra, Good Cheer is posting gaudy margins worthy of that Hall of Famer. She ran away in her Horseshoe Indianapolis debut by 8 1/4 lengths and crushed a Churchill allowance by 17. Up in class for the Rags to Riches over the same track and 1 1/16-mile trip, Good Cheer rolled by 4 3/4 lengths. Her Golden Rod performance was decisive, although the 2 1/2-length margin wasn’t quite as flashy. Saturday’s heroics advanced her resume to 5-for-5 with earnings of $637,630.

Kentucky-bred Good Cheer is out of Wedding Toast, a multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire by Street Sense. Wedding Toast is also responsible for Dubai stakes scorer Ya Hayati.

Further back, this is the family of $3.2 million-earner Congaree, a five-time Grade 1 star who was a valiant third in the 2001 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1).