Trainer Walsh hitting career highs with two more graded stakes victories
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Brendan Walsh went into last week’s racing already having won a greater number of races and a greater amount of purse money than during any full season of a training career that started, for all intents and purposes, in 2012. Walsh also came into it with six more graded-stakes wins, 15, than in any previous year, and he came out of it with two more after Lush Lips won the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere on Friday and Bella Ballerina the Grade 2 Golden Rod at Churchill Downs on Saturday.
Three-year-old Lush Lips will winter in Florida, while Bella Ballerina heads to Louisiana, tracking the same path as her older sister, Pretty Mischievous, who won the 2023 Kentucky Oaks for Walsh and Godolphin. Pretty Mischievous, by Into Mischief, won the first two starts of her career, finished third in the Golden Rod, then went to Fair Grounds and won the Untapable and the Rachel Alexandra before finishing second in the Fair Grounds Oaks.
Bella Ballerina, by Street Sense, won a maiden sprint at Keeneland debuting in October and springboarded straight into the 1 1/16-mile Golden Rod, where she tracked a strong pace, took the lead at the head of the homestretch and held on for a half-length victory under Tyler Gaffalione. Bella Ballerina, considering her lack of experience and the Golden Rod splits, had a right to tire, but Walsh believes the filly, who earned a 79 Beyer Speed Figure, got lost after hitting the front so far from the finish.
“Tyler said he smooched at her at the 3/8 pole and she took off,” Walsh said. “She could have done with a little company. She idled a little at the end. It’s a long way for a 2-year-old to be out there in front.”
Walsh also won a first-level, one-mile allowance race on Saturday’s all 2-year-old card with Stop the Car, who made it two wins from two starts, his debut coming in a $150,000 maiden-claimer. Stop the Car, by Maximum Security, got a 70 Beyer and won going away.
“He’s another horse who has just improved immensely since he first ran,” Walsh said. “He he was a lot more forward in this race. He’ll run all day – no stamina limitations.”
Stop the Car also probably ends up at Fair Grounds, and while the Gun Runner on Dec. 20 comes up quickly, the Jan. 17 Lecomte could provide a landing spot.
Lush Lips, purchased at a November auction for $3.7 million after capturing the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, was doing so well when she rejoined Walsh’s barn following the sale that Walsh saw no reason not to keep training the filly. Racing professionally, she won the Mrs. Revere by a half-length, her fifth win since Lush Lips came overseas from Ireland and into Walsh’s stable. Walsh will keep Lush Lips in training, but said he’s not sure yet whether he’d aim at a race like the Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf in January or merely await the major races of spring and summer. Walsh has a second plausible Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf starter in Proctor Street, who landed the listed Cardinal Stakes on Nov. 27.
Gosger, however, will have a winter break to freshen up for a 2026 campaign, Walsh said. Second in the Preakness and the Haskell earlier this year, Gosger on Friday ran at least slightly below his best form finishing sixth in the Clark Stakes.
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