Queen Goddess ($31.20) has no trouble with American Oaks dirt
ARCADIA, Calif. - Queen Goddess was left alone on the lead in Sunday’s Grade 2 American Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at Santa Anita, setting the pace for the first time.
The strategy led to a career-defining first stakes win.
In the stretch, Queen Goddess’s closest pursuer got within 1 1/2 lengths, a threat that was brief. Queen Goddess, brave on the lead, won her first start at 1 1/4 miles, and first on dirt, in the $302,500 American Oaks.
Ridden by Juan Hernandez, Queen Goddess ($31.20) led a 1-2 finish for trainer Michael McCarthy, whose Nicest closed from sixth to finish a clear second, 3 1/4 lengths in front of the New York shipper Fluffy Socks, a 6-1 chance.
Going Global, the 4-5 favorite and a six-time stakes winner in 2021, was briefly second after a mile, but faded through the stretch under jockey Flavien Prat to finish sixth of 10 in her first career start on dirt.
“I made a good move on the turn, but that isn’t what she wants to do,” Prat said of the surface.
Hernandez has played an integral part in the development of Queen Goddess, who races for Eclipse Thoroughbreds Partners and TOLO Thoroughbreds.
Hernandez was aboard Queen Goddess for two wins at the Del Mar summer meeting – a maiden special weight race in her second start at Del Mar on Aug. 7 and her first start against winners in an allowance race in early September.
Hernandez rode Queen Goddess once in the fall, a third against older fillies and mares in an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Del Mar in November.
Hernandez had Queen Goddess off the pace in the first half of those wins and in the loss in November, but took the lead shortly after the start of the American Oaks.
“She showed me a lot today,” Hernandez said. “She was really sharp. She was comfortable and they let me go.
“She held the lead pretty good.”
Hernandez said he noticed Going Global had moved closer on the turn, but said Queen Goddess was quick to respond.
“I was riding extra hard,” he said. “She never stopped.”
Queen Goddess was timed in 2:04.74 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 95.
Nicest (7-1) was third in the Grade 1 Irish Oaks at the Curragh in July, when trained by Donnacha O’Brien, and had her best result in the United States in her third start in this country in the American Oaks.
Nicest joined McCarthy’s stable in late summer.
Fluffy Socks, the winner of the Grade 2 Sands Point Stakes on turf, was third to Going Global in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks in August.
In the American Oaks, Fluffy Socks was followed by Ivy League, Single Soul, Going Global, Closing Remarks, Charges Dropped, Burgoo Alley and Core Values.
Queen Goddess, by Empire Maker, was bred by TOLO Thoroughbreds and has won 3 of 6 starts and has earned $303,080.
The American Oaks could be rated as a Grade 1 race by the end of the week. When graded stakes change surfaces, the race is automatically downgraded one level until a Kentucky-based committee evaluates the race’s quality to determine whether to restore the original grade or leave race downgraded.