Going Global figures to be right there once again in American Oaks
ARCADIA, Calif. – Going Global has been the surprise star of trainer Phil D’Amato’s California stable in 2021.
There seems to be little that Going Global cannot do, having won six stakes this year, from six furlongs to 1 1/8 miles. The next task is Sunday’s Grade 1 American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita, the longest race in a career that showed modest promise in Ireland in 2020.
Going Global won a seven-furlong handicap for 2-year-olds on the synthetic track in Dundalk on a weeknight in November 2020. Such horses are not expected to develop into multiple graded stakes winners.
Racing for Michael Dubb, Saul Gevertz, Michael Nentwig, Ray Pagano, and John Rochfort, Going Global has won 6 of 7 starts and earned $640,000 this year. In her only loss, she closed well for second, beaten a half-length by Madone, in the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes at a mile on turf at Del Mar in July.
On the Breeders’ Cup Saturday program last month, Going Global faced older fillies and mares for the first time in the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes at a mile, and rallied from fifth to win by 1 1/2 lengths in arguably the best performance of her 11-race career.
“She’s flourishing right now,” trainer Phil D’Amato said earlier this week.
That is not the sort of message rival owners and trainers want to hear in advance of the $300,000 American Oaks, the last of 11 races on an opening-day program that begins at 11 a.m. Pacific.
The field includes Closing Remarks and Fluffy Socks, who were second and third behind Going Global in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at 1 1/8 miles on turf in August, and Nicest, who was third in the Grade 1 Irish Oaks at 1 1/2 miles at the Curragh in July and third in the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Del Mar on Nov. 25.
Nicest is trained by Michael McCarthy, who also runs Charges Dropped, Queen Goddess, and Single Soul, each seeking her first stakes win.
Nicest was third in the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/2 miles at Royal Ascot in England in June when trained by Donnacha O’Brien.
“She’s been very straightforward since she came to us,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think a mile and a quarter will be an issue.”
Nicest’s recent starts put the Irish-bred filly by American Pharoah in the top rank of American Oaks contenders along with Going Global and Fluffy Socks, who has not raced since a win in the Grade 2 Sands Point Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Belmont Park on Oct. 16.
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Closing Remarks was probably not suited to the yielding turf when sixth in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland in October. Earlier this year, Closing Remarks was a game second to Going Global in two starts at Santa Anita in March and April.
While Closing Remarks, Fluffy Socks, and Nicest have fine credentials, they do not have the remarkable consistency of Going Global, who will be ridden by Flavien Prat for the eighth consecutive race.
The longer distance of the American Oaks is not an issue for D’Amato, considering the run through the opening furlong is downhill before the field crosses the main track to race on the main turf oval.
“I’m not worried about distance with her,” he said. “To me, it’s like a mile and three-sixteenths kind of race.”
Going Global has won at distances of six furlongs, a mile, and 1 1/8 miles in California. In each race this year, she has closed from off the pace with a stout three-furlong rally. Her consistency has made an admirer out of D’Amato.
“When horses get good, they get good,” he said. “She has that competitive desire to win in everything she does, whether it’s a breeze or a race. She wants to be there in front.
“When horses stay in that zone, it’s a fun thing to train those kind and win these kind of races.”