By Steve Sherack
ARCADIA, CA – You've got company Groupie Doll.
Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) successfully defended her title at Santa Anita on Saturday and joined the 2012-13 champion female sprinter as the only repeat winners of the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. Longshots Yuugiri (Shackleford) and Three Witches (Into Mischief) collected the minors.
Favored at even-money, Goodnight Olive broke nicely from her rail draw and found a good spot beneath Irad Ortiz, Jr. in a joint third behind the first-time blinkered Eda (Munnings) and second-choice Society (Gun Runner) through an opening quarter in :22.29. Locked and loaded on the far turn, Goodnight Olive revved up with a menacing three-wide sweep and took over with ease passing the quarter pole. She turned for home in complete command and was kept to her task with a couple of needless left-handers from Ortiz, Jr. to win by 2 3/4 lengths dominating lengths.
Trainer Chad Brown picked up his third victory in the race and 18th Breeders' Cup victory overall. He also saddled Hard to Justify (Justify) to a win in Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
“It's very satisfying,” Brown said. “She trained perfect her last two works. Really beautifully. When she broke good and got behind Society, which I was really happy to see because we knew she was the second choice in the race and really fit on paper. If we could find her, she was going to take us at least to the quarter-pole. And I said to Irad (Ortiz, Jr.), it's likely that other horses will be tired around you at that point and when she got outside of her, she was able to put the race to bed. Rarely does 'Plan A' go into effect and actually finish all the way through. That was our plan and Irad executed it perfectly.”
“Beautiful trip,” Ortiz Jr. said of his 18th career winner at the Championships. “She was there for me every time I asked. She gives me confidence. I knew I was on the best horse. She did it again.”
The First Row Partners and Team Hanley colorbearer, a complete steal for $170,000 as a FTKOCT yearling, will head into the ring for Tuesday's Fasig-Tipton's 'Night of the Stars' November Sale.
“It was obviously the goal that we started after last year's win,” winning co-owner Steve Laymon of First Row Partners said. “A lot of folks were thinking we'd retire her, and it was never a consideration with this group. We're sad to see her go, but what a career for this mare.”
Goodnight Olive faced the starter four previous times since concluding her 2022 season with a powerful victory over Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) at Keeneland last fall. Goodnight Olive returned to the site of her first Filly & Mare Sprint victory and successfully launched her 5-year-old campaign with a win in the GI Madison S. Apr. 8. With absolutely nowhere to run down the stretch, her seven-race winning streak, however, came to a frustrating end after finishing a luckless third in the GI Derby City Distaff S. on the GI Kentucky Derby undercard. Goodnight Olive got there in time with a neck victory in the GII Bed o' Roses S. at Belmont June 17, then earned a career-best 108 Beyer Speed Figure while finishing 2 1/2 lengths adrift the aforementioned recently retired 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine while failing to repeat in the GI Ballerina H. at the Spa Aug. 26, a race she won impressively in 2022.
Pedigree Notes:
Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, an unforgettable winner of the 2004 GI Breeders' Cup Classic, is now a three-time winning sire of this contest. He is also responsible for 2014 Filly & Mare Sprint heroine Judy the Beauty. Goodnight Olive is one of 14 top-level winners for Ghostzapper. Goodnight Olive is one of two winners from three to the races out of dual Grade III winner Salty Strike, who was acquired by the Stonestreet team for $800,000 at the Keeneland January Sale in 2013. A half-sister to the stakes-winning Salty Response (Cozzene) and to the stakes-placed dam of MSP Mohawk Trail (Pioneerof the Nile), Salty Strike is also the dam of the unraced Katie's Keepsake (Medaglia d'Oro), who was sold for $250,000 in foal to Ghostzapper to D. C. Goff at this year's Keeneland January Sale. Goodnight Olive is two of three Breeders' Cup winners out of a daughter of the late Smart Strike, joining GI Filly & Mare Turf upsetter Shared Account (Pleasantly Perfect).
REPLAY: Goodnight Olive wins the $1 Million @PNCBank #BreedersCup Filly & Mare Sprint! Congrats to her connections! #BC23 pic.twitter.com/cmlJoCUJ87
— Breeders' Cup (@BreedersCup) November 4, 2023
Saturday, Santa Anita Park
PNC BANK BREEDERS' CUP FILLY & MARE SPRINT-GI, $910,000, Santa Anita, 11-4, 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:22.97, ft.
1–GOODNIGHT OLIVE, 124, m, 5, by Ghostzapper
1st Dam: Salty Strike (MGSW, $485,266), by Smart Strike
2nd Dam: Lake Huron, by Salt Lake
3rd Dam: My Rainbow, by Lyphard
($170,000 Ylg '19 FTKOCT). O-First Row Partners and Team Hanley; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Chad Brown; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr.. $520,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. Female Sprinter, 12-9-2-1, $2,196,200. Click for the http://www.werkhorse.com/free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Yuugiri, 124, f, 4, by Shackleford
1st Dam: Yuzuru (SW, $105,759), by Medaglia d'Oro
2nd Dam: Macarena Macarena, by Gone West
3rd Dam: Angelic Song, by Halo
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. O/B-Sekie & Tsunebumi Yoshihara (KY); T-Rodolphe Brisset. $170,000.
3–Three Witches, 124, f, 4, by Into Mischief
1st Dam: Layreebelle, by Tale of the Cat
2nd Dam: Voodoo Lily, by Baldski
3rd Dam: Cap the Moment, by For The Moment
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($350,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-e Five Racing Thoroughbreds; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.. $90,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, 1 1/4, HF. Odds: 1.10, 26.20, 34.40.
Also Ran: Society, Kirstenbosch, Clearly Unhinged, Eda, Matareya, Meikei Yell (Jpn).
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by Fanduel TV.
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