2025 Eclipse Awards: She Feels Pretty

It was no surprise to see She Feels Pretty among the nation’s leading turf females in 2025. She has been at the top of her class since her 2-year-old season in 2023.

She Feels Pretty won 3 of 5 starts in 2025 and was second in her two losses, including a half-length defeat in the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

For the entirety of her campaign, She Feels Pretty is a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s champion female turf horse.

Owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stables and trained by Cherie DeVaux, She Feels Pretty was a finalist for Eclipse Awards as the nation’s champion female turf horse of 2024. With those accomplishments in her recent past, there were high expectations for She Feels Pretty’s 2025 season.

She delivered.

Bred in Kentucky by Payson Stud Inc. and purchased in 2022 for $240,000 as a yearling at the Keeneland September sale, She Feels Pretty won her first two starts of 2025 in the Grade 3 Modesty Stakes on May 2 at Churchill Downs and the Grade 1 New York Stakes presented by Rivers Casino on June 6 at Saratoga.

:: Full list of 2025 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

She Feels Pretty, who had John Velazquez as a regular rider through the year, won the New York Stakes at 1 3/16 miles on yielding turf she may not have preferred.

“Having a filly like that is super special,” DeVaux said after the race. “I think of all things this is what she would least be wanting to do. I don’t think she likes the course. Johnny commented that the first time around she didn’t really tug him around there, but she’s such a professional. She just did it.”

Later in the summer at Saratoga, She Feels Pretty was second by a head in the Grade 1 Dunkin’ Diana Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles, leading in the stretch but unable to outfinish Excellent Truth.

“Even that was one of her best races,” DeVaux said later in the year.

Prior to the Breeders’ Cup, She Feels Pretty rebounded to win the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf on Aug. 16 at Woodbine, her seventh career stakes win and fifth Grade 1.

She Feels Pretty was the 3-1 second choice in a field of 13 in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at 1 3/8 miles, the longest race of her career. Starting from post 12, She Feels Pretty stalked the pace and reached the front on the turn, leading by 1 1/2 lengths in the stretch.

She Feels Pretty seemed to have a sufficient advantage until Gezora closed from sixth to win.

“I think she ran awesome,” DeVaux said. “She had every excuse to give up and she ran awesome.”

DeVaux’s opinion reflects on all of She Feels Pretty’s 2025 season.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.