Good Cheer brings two-turn power to Golden Rod

The 2-year-old Into Mischief filly Eclatant has started her career with two wins, both in sprint races, each sharp and easy enough to envision Eclatant turning into a truly nice horse. Her trainer, Brad Cox, feels confident Eclatant’s talent will carry around a second turn Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Grade 2, $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes.

“She’s very, very good,” said Cox, who trains Eclatant for her breeder, Stonestreet Stables. “I think she’ll stretch.”

Eclatant could route as well as she sprints and still lose the Golden Rod, a 1 1/16-mile test that’s part of the Road to the 2025 Kentucky Oaks. Eclatant might project as a two-turn horse; Good Cheer already has demonstrated she is one.

Good Cheer debuted in a two-turn mile at Horseshoe Indianapolis and won by more than eight lengths. She came back in a two-turn, first-level allowance at Churchill and won by more than 17. Her stakes debut Oct. 27 in the $200,000 Rags to Riches, another 1 1/16-mile race at Churchill, yielded a 4 3/4-length victory. Tracking the pacesetters from fourth, Good Cheer pounced before the quarter pole and won going away.

“That filly could run from here to Bangladesh,” Cox said. “She does not get tired.”

The Cox pair figures to dominate the betting in the Golden Rod, which drew just seven entrants. Sturgeon Moon got shuffled to last at the half-mile pole and overcame a slow pace to win a first-level allowance last month at Keeneland while making her route debut. Plucky effort, but not in the same league as either Cox filly. Fixin to Bee, My Lil Punky, and Flash Wear have done some decent running, but none of them is beating Good Cheer or Eclatant without a serious step forward.

Quietside heads the non-Cox portion of the race. She exits a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland, won by the Cox-trained Immersive, who came back to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Immersive, who also won the Grade 1 Spinaway, will be 2-year-old filly champion, and Cox’s barn overflows with talented fillies. Stunner goes off an odds-on favorite Saturday in the My Dear Girl division of the Florida Sire Stakes. Next weekend, Muhimma will be favored in the Demoiselle at Aqueduct.

Is Good Cheer their equal? Possibly.

Cox annually runs an Indiana string, and a young horse starting off there doesn’t designate them as second-string. The champion filly Monomoy Girl, for instance, debuted at Horseshoe Indianapolis, and, as much as anything, the opportunity to start a stamina-laden horse like Good Cheer in a summer two-turn dirt race occasioned her appearance in Shelbyville, Ind. While Good Cheer, a Godolphin homebred by Medaglia d’Oro, gallops strongly and stays on well, she’s not devoid of brilliance.

“When she’s asked to go, she’ll really jump on top of the leaders quick,” Cox said.

Around the far turn in the Golden Rod, jockey Luis Saez will ask Good Cheer to go. She’ll jump on the leaders, her stablemate Eclatant among them. Eclatant, a debut winner at Churchill and a smooth first-level allowance heroine at Keeneland, could put up a fight, ready for two-turn racing. She might not quite be ready for Good Cheer.

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