Wharfie goes last to first in Rags to Riches
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In a classic riches-to-riches tale, Wharfie won the Rags to Riches Stakes for the global racing and breeding powerhouse Godolphin on Sunday at Churchill Downs.
Wharfie, one of two Godolphin horses along with First Laugh in the Rags to Riches, rallied from last of seven under Junior Alvarado, wearing down Juana Margarita in the final half-furlong in the $190,000 Rags to Riches, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race for 2-year-old fillies.
First Lady raced wide throughout and might have edged to the lead between the five-sixteenths and quarter poles before Juana Margarita rolled past her on the outside. Wharfie followed Juana Margarita into the homestretch, both fillies winding up in the middle of the track as Wharfie finally got to a stubborn Juana Margarita at the sixteenths pole.
The top two were much the best, with First Lady 6 1/2 lengths back in third. Oh She Said Yes finished fourth, 2 1/2 lengths out of third, as the 2-1 second choice. Kenny McPeek trains Oh She Said Yes as well as Juana Margarita, who went off at 23-1.
Juana Margarita, in her most recent race, the third of her career, won a $30,000 maiden-claimer Oct. 8 at Keeneland, and while these young horses can improve leaps and bounds over the course of a few lengths, her three-quarters-length defeat calls into the question the general strength of the Rags to Riches.
Take nothing away from Wharfie, who ran decently sprinting in her Saratoga debut before defeating three foes to leave the maiden ranks in a Belmont Park one-turn mile. Shuffled back to last Sunday, she made a long, sustained run and showed grit pushing past Juana Margarita. The betting public figured it out, and Wharfie paid $5.40 as the favorite.
Hall of Famer Bill Mott trains Wharfie, a daughter of Essential Quality and Waterside, by Medaglia d’Oro.
The top five finishers earned a handful of qualifying points toward the 2027 Kentucky Oaks. Wharfie got 10 of them. Godolphin, backed by the infinitely deep pockets of Sheikh Mohammad al Maktoum, has won two recent renewals of the Oaks, in 2023 with Pretty Mischievous and in 2025 with Good Cheer. The rich get richer.
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