By Steve Sherack
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the weeks leading up to the GI Kentucky Oaks, you can't blame trainer Brad Cox if he wasn't quite ready– at least yet–to compare the unbeaten Good Cheer (Medaglia d'Oro) to either of his two previous winners in the most important race for 3-year-old fillies. Think he may be ready now.
Off as the 6-5 favorite over a surface turned sloppy and sealed by torrential rains that ripped through the Louisville area around 4 p.m. and pushed back the start of the Oaks by 13 minutes, the Godolphin homebred unleashed a powerful, five-wide sweep beneath Luis Saez approaching the quarter pole and came rolling down the center of the Churchill Downs stretch to record an authoritative 2 1/4-length victory. Longshots Drexel Hill (Bolt d'Oro) and Bless the Broken (Laoban) rounded out the top three. Good Cheer stopped the clock for 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.15.
“It means a tremendous amount,” Cox said. “I mean, this is the peak for the 3-year-old fillies. Now, we'll continue to campaign her throughout the year. But it's a big race. It means a lot to me, obviously, being from Louisville. This means a tremendous amount.”
Good Cheer raced in eighth and in the clear following opening fractions of :22.58 and :46.78 as GI Central Bank Ashland S. heroine La Cara (Street Sense) was hounded up front by the once-beaten and Bob Baffert-trained Tenma (Nyquist).
The blinkered Good Cheer was given her cue and began to make her move about three furlongs from home. Tenma got the better of the pace battle with La Cara, and led briefly in the stretch, but Good Cheer was just getting warmed up, and stormed home as a much-the-best winner.
Good Cheer becomes the second Kentucky Oaks winner in three years for Sheikh Mohammed's global operation, joining Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief) (2023). Cox won the Kentucky Oaks with Monomoy Girl in 2018 and doubled up with Shedaresthedevil two years later. It was the second Oaks victory for Saez, who piloted Secret Oath in 2022.
“We know she is a very special filly,” Saez said. “She's undefeated. Of course, we were a little nervous, but I know she had a lot of talent. And I rode her pretty confident because we know she's going to make a big move.”
The field for the 2025 Kentucky Oaks rounds the clubhouse turn beneath the famed Twin Spires | Sherackatthetrack
Good Cheer entered off a pair of easy wins in New Orleans–the GII Fasig-Tipton Rachel Alexandra S. Feb. 15 and GII Fasig-Tipton Fair Grounds Oaks Mar. 22. The latter was good for a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure. The striking, blaze-faced bay went four-for-four as a 2-year-old, including wins in the Rags to Riches S. Oct. 27 and GII Golden Rod S. Nov. 30, both beneath the Twin Spires. She is now four for four at Churchill Downs.
Godolphin and Cox also campaign last year's champion 2-year-old filly Immersive (Nyquist), sidelined since capping her brilliant four-for-four season in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
“We had Immersive and she was obviously a very good champion in her own right,” Cox said looking back to last fall.
“But we thought she was our Kentucky Oaks filly, and thought this could be our Alabama filly. But obviously, this filly picked up and just every race continued to improve. Obviously, she loves Churchill. She'll run on anything. The further, the better. Very proud of her.”
Cox continued, “I'm not certain what her ceiling is. I don't know if there is one. I think right now, the target, the logical are obvious Grade Is at Saratoga: the Acorn, and CCA (Coaching Club American) Oaks, the Alabama, the Cotillion, all those races that are in play.”
Pedigree Notes:
Good Cheer becomes the third Kentucky Oaks winner for Darley's leading sire Medaglia d'Oro, also responsible for the once-in-a-lifetime Rachel Alexandra (2009) and Plum Pretty (2011).
“It's tremendous, 26-year-old stallion,” Godolphin's Michael Banahan said. “He's had a rejuvenation here in the last couple of years. Two fillies here in the Oaks today, and to come and have another winner. It would be nice to think if she could step in the shoes of a Rachel Alexandra or something like that, that would be great.”
Good Cheer's dam Wedding Toast, a homebred for Sheikh Mohammed trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, now the agent for Saez, won the GI Ogden Phipps S. and GI Beldame S. in 2015. She produced a full-sister to Good Cheer in 2024. Good Cheer's second dam is the unraced, Stonerside-bred Golden Sheba (Coronado's Quest). The late Bob McNair's standout five-time Grade I winner Congaree can be found under Good Cheer's third dam. Sheikh Mohammed acquired Stonerside back in 2008.
Good Cheer stays perfect in the Kentucky Oaks!! 🌸🏆@bradcoxracing @luissaezpty @godolphin
🎥 TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/oSv5L4EJm2
— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) May 2, 2025
Friday, Churchill Downs
LONGINES KENTUCKY OAKS-GI, $1,500,000, Churchill Downs, 5-2, 3yo, f, 1 1/8m, 1:50.15, wf.
1–GOOD CHEER, 121, f, 3, by Medaglia d'Oro
1st Dam: Wedding Toast (MGISW, $1,419,956),
by Street Sense
2nd Dam: Golden Sheba, by Coronado's Quest
3rd Dam: Mari's Sheba, by Mari's Book
1ST GRADE I WIN. O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Luis
Saez. $855,600. Lifetime Record: 7-7-0-0, $1,733,230.
*1/2 to Ya Hayati (Dubawi {Ire}), SW-UAE, $246,924.
Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Drexel Hill, 121, f, 3, by Bolt d'Oro
1st Dam: Ascot Walk, by Daaher
2nd Dam: Millenia (GB), by Unfuwain
3rd Dam: Sand Pigeon (GB), by Lammtarra
1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($20,000 Wlg
'22 KEENOV; $50,000 Ylg '23 KEESEP). O-Legion Racing;
B-Tuscany Bloodstock (KY); T-D. Whitworth Beckman.
$276,000.
3–Bless the Broken, 121, f, 3, by Laoban
1st Dam: The Nightingale, by Tapit
2nd Dam: Storm Dixie, by Catienus
3rd Dam: Golden Wave Band, by Dixieland Band
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O-Cypress Creek Equine LLC and Madaket
Stables LLC; B-Cypress Creek Equine, LLC (KY); T-William
Walden. $138,000.
Margins: 2 1/4, 1 1/4, 3 1/4. Odds: 1.39, 32.23, 17.82.
Also Ran: Tenma, Anna's Promise, Quietside, Quickick, Early On, La Cara, Ballerina d'Oro, Fondly, Take Charge Milady, Simply Joking. Scratched: Five G.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
