Good Cheer runs away with Golden Rod, earns 10 Kentucky Oaks points

Immersive, who early next year will be named an Eclipse Award winner, is not the only 2-year-old filly in the barn of trainer Brad Cox with four wins from four starts this year and a sharp dirt route graded-stakes score capping her season. Good Cheer on Saturday at Churchill Downs won for the fourth time in as many outings when she comfortably captured the Grade 2, $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes.

Godolphin bred and owns both fillies, and while Immersive has three Grade 1s – the Spinaway, the Alcibiades, and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies – on her resume, she probably doesn’t have much on Good Cheer.

Good Cheer, to be sure, has gotten to late November following a much different path than Immersive, debuting at Horseshoe Indianapolis before winning three straight at Churchill, a first-level allowance and the Rags to Riches preceding the Golden Rod.

Under Luis Saez, Good Cheer broke last of six Saturday and raced in traffic while fifth into the first turn and onto the backstretch, the pace somewhat slow to develop in front of her, 40-1 shot My Lil Punky carving out a half-mile in 48.66, on the slow side of average. Eclantant, another Cox-trained filly, stalked from second, attacked past the half-mile pole, and briefly put her head in front going around the far turn. By then, Saez had encouraged Good Cheer to make her move. Good Cheer obliged.

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Good Cheer debuted in a route and has raced only around two turns, her frame on the lanky side, her trainer extolling what seems like bottomless stamina. But this is no grinder. Good Cheer, given her cue, quickly inhaled the leaders, just as she had in the Rags to Riches, going clear by the quarter pole, taking a 2 1/2-length lead to the stretch call and winning by that same margin over Quietside. Quietside exited a third-place finish in the Alcibiades, where Immersive beat her 3 3/4 lengths, but Quietside looked stronger and smoother at Churchill than she had last month at Keeneland. Eclatant, fading, held third by a head over Sturgeon Moon.

Good Cheer paid $3.32 to win and ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.26. She’s by Medaglia d’Oro out of the Street Sense mare Wedding Toast, a multiple Grade 1 winner who excelled in dirt routes.

“She’s just a frame right now,” said Michael Banahan, who oversees Godolphin’s American runners. “We’ve a lot to look forward to next year.”

The Golden Rod is part of Churchill Downs’ Road to the Kentucky Oaks, and Good Cheer earned 10 qualifying points toward the 2025 Oaks. She’s not the only Brad Cox-trained filly with sites set on the first Friday next May.

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