For Godolphin, four 2-year-old stakes winners makes a pleasant problem

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The team at Godolphin Racing will have a lot of plans to make this winter when it comes to getting four of its homebreds on the road to the Kentucky Derby.

Poster’s victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct gave Godolphin its fourth individual 2-year-old stakes winner in the last two months. The run began with East Avenue’s victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and continued on Oct. 27 with Sovereignty’s five-length triumph in the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs. On Nov. 30, First Resort won the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill before Poster made the transition from turf to dirt in Saturday’s Remsen.

“We’re going to have a headache that we’ve never had before, to figure out what we have to try and do, you know. But it’s a great position to be in, it’s a great problem to have over Christmas time to think about all these opportunities with them,” Michael Banahan, director of bloodstock for Godolphin, said after the Remsen.

“All nice horses, great pedigrees with them as well, it’s a fun spot to be in. Hopefully, we can keep them healthy and well into the springtime before challenging for some nice races.”

Poster, who won his first two starts on turf, made the successful transition from turf to dirt winning Saturday’s Remsen by a nose over Aviator Gui. Poster, a son of Munnings, made a four-wide move under Flavien Prat, advanced to a clear lead in midstretch and hung on after idling a bit.

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Poster shipped back to trainer Eoin Harty’s barn at Turfway Park and will remain there for the foreseeable future along with First Resort, whom Harty also trains.

Harty was impressed not only with how Poster handled the dirt underneath him, but how he handled dirt being kicked back at him down the backside.

“It didn’t bother him at all, he was running through it,” Harty said. “A lot of horses, when that dirt hits them for the first time, start climbing and stick their head up in the air. He kept running through it.”

Harty noted that Poster, a son of Munnings, is a May foal “so he has a lot of catching up to do,” Harty said.

Poster is by Munnings out of the dam Pin Up, a half-sister to 2006 Preakness winner and champion 3-year-old Bernardini.

While Poster and First Resort are at Turfway with Harty, East Avenue, who stumbled at the start of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in which he eventually finished ninth, is at Fair Grounds with trainer Brendan Walsh. Sovereignty recently returned to the track at Payson Park for trainer Bill Mott, who last week said that Sovereignty was given three weeks off by design.

“The great thing about the 3-year-old program there’s tons of opportunities and chances,” Banahan said.

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