Goodness Sakes tries for second Belterra turf stakes win

Goodness Sakes brings strong recent turf form into Friday’s $75,000 Miss Southern Ohio Stakes for Ohio-accredited fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on Belterra Park’s turf. The Miss Southern Ohio shares the card with the $75,000 Loyalty Stakes for Ohio-accredited juveniles.

Only three Miss Southern Ohio entrants have ever won on turf – with Goodness Sakes the only one to do so this year, giving her an edge. Four of the entrants have never run on the surface.

Goodness Sakes, a 3-year-old trained by Robert Gorham for Mast Thoroughbreds, made her first start on turf and first try around two turns in the Cincinnatian Stakes on July 1 at Belterra. The result was a three-length victory over Bossy Lady and her Gorham-trained stablemate Out for Fun, both of whom she faces again Friday.

Out for Fun emerged from the Cincinnatian to win a one-mile allowance race on a sloppy Belterra track for Gorham.

Goodness Sakes ran back in the Horizon Stakes, which was taken off the turf, and finished fifth. The top two in that race were Early Bloomer, also entered in the Miss Southern Ohio, and Relish the Ride, who is entered in Thursday’s Catlaunch Stakes at Thistledown and can perhaps provide an early clue as to the form of the Horizon.

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Grizabella has won three of 13 starts on the Belterra turf, taking the 2019 and 2020 editions of the Miss Southern Ohio, and the 2021 Vivacious Handicap. However, following the Vivacious, she was unplaced in eight straight races. She got back in the win column in a claiming dirt sprint and now steps back into stakes company for Jeff Radosevich.

The only other entrant in this field to win on turf is Star Rules, who won her maiden on the surface last year. Although she scored the win against open company at Colonial Downs, it was in a sprint, and she has never started in a stakes on turf.

◗ All eight entrants in the Loyalty are seeking a first stakes victory, and only two have experience at the level, led by Sammy and Shorty. The gelding was a 10 1/4-length debut winner for Radosevich, then finished third in the Cleveland Kindergarten on Aug. 13 at Thistledown. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 50 for that effort, easily the best in this field.

Excitement was a debut winner for the successful breeding partnership of WinStar Farm and trainer Tim Hamm before finishing fourth in the Kindergarten. Making up the rest of the field are maiden winners Ain’t No Bandleader, Factisimflashy, and King Patriot; the maiden Ronni’s Wind; and first-time starters John’s Wild River and Playing for Keeps.