Goodnight Olive

In 15 starts, My Lil Dude won two races, hit the board six times, and earned $57,620, competing in Louisiana. Drive for Fun, a son of Distorted Humor, was more successful, winning three times and earning just under $200,000. But that wasn't enough to save either of them from being shipped from Evangeline Downs in May and ending up in a kill pen, the last step before crossing over the border to Mexico to be slaughtered. That's the fate of 20,000 American horses every year, an unknowable number of them...

John Stewart, who owns Resolute Racing and founded MiddleGround Capital, will sponsor two Keeneland dirt sprint stakes which will be run opening weekend of the Spring Meet, the track said in a release on Thursday. Resolute Racing will add its name to the $600,000 GI Madison S. which will run on Saturday, Apr. 6, while MiddleGround Capital will sponsor the $400,000 GII Beaumont S. on Sunday, April 7. "My partner Scot Duncan and I have always enjoyed taking our family, friends, co-workers and investors to the races at Keeneland," Stewart...

Statements don't come much bigger than that made by John Stewart in the second half of 2023 when he spent over $25 million at public auction in less than 10 weeks, suddenly announcing himself as an emerging force in racing and bloodstock. Stewart's most costly recruits included the second-top lot at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, an Uncle Mo half-sister to the multiple Grade I winner Shedaresthedevil (Daredevil) who sold for $2.5 million. He then rolled into the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Sale where a pair of Breeders' Cup winners headlined...

As the 2024 breeding season is now underway, the TDN staff is sitting down with breeders to find out what stallions they have chosen for their mares, and why. Here we catch up with Chelsey Stone, the Director of Breeding for John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock. Stewart made a huge splash at the yearling and breeding stock sales in 2023 and he purchased the former Shadwell Stud property in Midway, Kentucky to launch Resolute Farm. "We have such an awesome fleet of mares, but we are always looking to add to...

John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock has purchased 2022 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint champion Caravel (Mizzen Mast) in a private sale conducted early in 2024. Resolute's breeding director Chelsey Stone said the 7-year-old mare will visit Juddmonte's champion sire Frankel (GB) in 2024. Bred and initially campaigned and trained by Elizabeth Merryman, Caravel earned nearly $2 million and amassed 15 career victories. In addition to her Breeders' Cup score, she earned a second Grade I win in the 2023 Jaipur S. In her final career start at the 2023 Breeders' Cup, the...

Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper--Salty Strike, by Smart Strike), the Eclipse Award-winning Champion Female Sprinter of 2022 and 2023, who sold for $6 million at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, will be retired and bred to Not This Time, according to a press release from John Stewart's Resolute Farm. Goodnight Olive earned $2.196 million on the racetrack, winning nine of 12 races while never finishing out of the money. She won back-to-back editions of the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. Following her Breeders' Cup win, Goodnight Olive returned to Payson Park...

It was an evening to remember for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Godolphin team, as the worldwide operation accumulated no fewer than five statuettes over the course of the evening at Thursday's 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards Presented by FanDuel TV, John Deere, Keeneland and The Jockey Club, honoring and recognizing excellence in Thoroughbred racing. And they saved the best for last, as Cody's Wish (Curlin), whose story resonated with nearly every fan of Thoroughbred racing and beyond, was named Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male for...

Elite Power (Curlin) and Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) repeated as Eclipse champion sprinters during Thursday's ceremony in Florida. Juddmonte's Elite Power traveled to Saudi Arabia to begin 2023 with a win in the G3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint. Returned stateside, he won the GII True North S. and GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. before having an eight-race win streak interrupted with a runner-up effort in the GI Forego S. at Saratoga in August. He returned to the winner's circle and earned his second straight win in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint just...

As 2023 draws to a close, the TDN is asking industry members to name their favorite moment of the year. Send yours to suefinley@thetdn.com I've been a racing enthusiast alongside my Dad forever, but watching his horse, Goodnight Olive, the past couple of years has been unparalleled. In 2023, we supported her every step during her 5-year-old campaign, culminating in a spectacular victory at the Breeder's Cup. It was my first time to Santa Anita, and what a special venue to watch her deliver magic one last time for the...

Irad Ortiz, Jr. has withdrawn his appeal of a three-day suspension for "for failure to maintain a straight course in the stretch and causing interference" aboard 11-10 favorite Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), who successfully defended her title by winning the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park. There was no stewards' inquiry posted after Goodnight Olive's win. The Equibase chart noted that Goodnight Olive "drifted in, taking the path of Society [Gun Runner] near the three-sixteenths pole" before she "quickly opened clear and held safely."...

Prior to this year's Keeneland September Sale, John Stewart was largely unknown in racing circles. That changed when Stewart, the founder and managing partner of MiddleGround Capital, a private equity firm, spent $8.425 million on 13 horses. He was just getting started. Stewart returned to the fall breeding stock sales at Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland where he once again opened his check book, purchasing 11 mares and weanlings for a total of $17.35 million. The list included the two-time GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper). Stewart...

Back-to-back GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint heroine Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), who went to Lexington's own John Stewart at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale for $6 million on Tuesday Night, confirmed Wednesday via a message on X that his new acquisition would be returning to trainer Chad Brown to race in 2024. After the purchase that evening, Stewart told TDN that, "With all the success she's had to date, I think she still has some opportunity to still run." The new owner added to that sentiment in the Wednesday Tweet...