2021 Eclipse Awards: War Like Goddess

In her first start of 2021, War Like Goddess finished a quiet fifth in her stakes debut in the Grade 3 The Very One Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 27. By the end of the year, the loss was a distant memory.

Through 2021, War Like Goddess won four consecutive graded stakes in Florida, Kentucky, and New York and ran arguably the best race of her career when third in a thrilling running of the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 6.

The winning streak and the outstanding performance at Del Mar earned War Like Goddess a position among the three finalists for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding turf female of 2021.

Not bad for a filly purchased for a mere $30,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales’ auction of 2-year-olds in-training in 2019.

Owned by George Krikorian and trained by Bill Mott, War Like Goddess won her first two starts in the autumn of 2020 as a 3-year-old – a maiden race and an allowance race at Churchill Downs.

In The Very One Stakes, War Like Goddess rallied very wide, and finished 3 1/4 lengths behind Antoinette. While she was beaten, War Like Goddess established a style that was successful in the Grade 3 Orchid Stakes at Gulfstream Park in March, the Grade 3 Bewitch Stakes at Keeneland in April, the Grade 2 Glens Falls Stakes at Saratoga in August, and the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Saratoga in September.

In each of those wins, War Like Goddess was off the pace under regular rider Julien Leparoux and rallied wide to take the lead in early stretch. Aside from a nose win in the Orchid, her rivals never got within two lengths.

:: Full list of 2021 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

“You can do whatever you want and she’ll still give you that punch in the end,” Leparoux said during the season. “It’s nice. It’s a sign of the good ones, for sure.”

War Like Goddess was the 2-1 favorite in a stellar field of 12 in the BC Filly and Mare Turf at 1 3/8 miles. Leparoux had War Like Goddess in last for the first mile before the filly unleashed a five-wide rally that carried her to the front in early stretch.

War Like Goddess held a half-length advantage with a furlong remaining but could not sustain the effort, finishing a half-length behind the Japanese shipper Loves Only You and a head behind My Sister Nat.

“She ran hard,” Mott said after the race. “She made the lead a little early, maybe, and was a little wide off the turn.”

Leparoux said after the race that War Like Goddess was an eager runner.

“Just before the three-eighths pole, she took a hold of the bridle on her own and made that big move,” he said. “It was sooner than I would have liked. She ran a very good race.”

War Like Goddess was not beaten far in the Breeders’ Cup, a loss that ended an outstanding winning streak.

War Like Goddess, who was bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm, is a daughter of English Channel out of the North Light mare Misty North.