Latest news with #GoodCheer
New York Post
10 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Post
2025 Acorn Stakes: Can anybody upset Good Cheer on Friday at Saratoga?
Gambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. Read our editorial standards for more information. The 2025 Belmont Stakes may be about two horses, but Friday's headliner at Saratoga, the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes, is about one. No. 2 Good Cheer, the winner of the 2025 Kentucky Oaks, is 7-for-7 in her career, and all seven of her wins have come by at least two lengths. A win on Friday afternoon would put her in lofty company, and the oddsmakers believe that it's more likely than not that she comes through. Good Cheer was installed as a hefty 1-2 favorite on the morning line, putting her a couple of tiers above the rest of this seven-horse field. You can expect a ton of horizontal wagers on Friday to have Good Cheer singled to close their ticket, and you will see plenty of punters tie her to Journalism or Sovereignty in the Acorn/Belmont Stakes Double. That presents the classic dilemma for handicappers: Do you just join the masses and throw Good Cheer in all of your horizontal wagers and try to find value other ways, or do you try to take her on, knowing that you're going to get a good price on whoever you think has the best chance of handing Brad Cox's runner her first defeat? What's so interesting about Good Cheer and her dominance is that she's not putting up monster numbers. If you're someone who is using speed figures in your handicapping homework, you'll be left a little perplexed because this horse is doing nothing wrong, yet hasn't had that eye-popping number yet. That may sound like a knock, but it's really a testament to just how good this horse has been. She's shown up to each race and has been the best runner on the track seven times out of seven. To beat a horse like Good Cheer, you'll need two things to happen. One, she needs to be off her game, and two, you need the race to break your way. Saratoga will host the 2025 Belmont Stakes for the second year in a row. Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images But even for most horses in this field, that likely won't be enough. There are a couple of entrants that do have a chance to pull the upset, should things follow their preferred script. 2025 Acorn Stakes long shots No. 3 La Cara (10-1) La Cara set a lively pace in the Kentucky Oaks, but Mark Casse's contender faded down the stretch and ultimately had to settle for ninth, miles behind Good Cheer. Sounds ominous, right? Well, sure. But, there is some context needed for that result. Mother Nature was up to no good during Kentucky Derby Weekend, and that seemed to play a factor in how La Cara performed. This doesn't seem to be a horse who wants to run in muddy conditions. There is some precipitation in the forecast for Saratoga this weekend, but if there are clear skies, this horse has the speed figures you'd need to get out in front and stay there. Get the lowdown on the Best USA Sports Betting Sites and Apps No. 5 Bless the Broken (10-1) In a lot of ways, what Bless the Broken does on Friday depends on La Cara. If the No. 3 horse sets a blistering pace, like she did at the Kentucky Oaks, Bless the Broken has every chance to do exactly what she did at Churchill Downs that day. She sat back and waited for the opportunity to kick it into high gear, passing plenty of tiring horses down the stretch. Given the pace setup in this field, there is a decent chance that we saw that race script again on Friday. La Cara, No. 4 Shred the Gnar, No. 6 Look Forward, and No. 1 Scottish Lassie all could vie for the front, turning the first four furlongs into a scrum, which would hopefully tucker them out. The bad news for Bless the Broken is that it will also play right into Good Cheer's hands, but maybe you get her on an off day, and this long shot can fire. At the very least, she's one to use in exotics on Friday. Why Trust New York Post Betting Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Clean sweep has Charlie Appleby dreaming of the Triple Crown after Desert Flower completed astounding weekend for Godolphin
Desert Flower completed an astounding weekend for Godolphin and left trainer Charlie Appleby pondering the potential to make history this summer. Godolphin, the venture of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed, are synonymous with winning big races but they have never hit the jackpot quite like this. Desert Flower was superb in the Betfred 1000 Guineas, supplementing a brilliant display from stablemate Ruling Court in the 2000 Guineas. For good measure, Cinderella's Dream took the Dahlia Stakes on Sunday's Newmarket card. That came on the back of Sovereignty giving Godolphin their first triumph in Saturday's Kentucky Derby and Good Cheer taking the Kentucky Oaks on Friday night; both horses are trained in America. Appleby, not surprisingly, was overjoyed with what he had seen. He was the first trainer to do the Guineas double since Aidan O'Brien in 2019 and Paddy Power slashed Desert Flower's odds for the Oaks, which has been nominated as her next target, into 5/2 from 7/1. Ruling Court is also 4/1 second favourite for the Derby and, if either were successful, it would open up the prospect of having an attempt at the Triple Crown. Sponsors Betfred have offered a £2million bonus if a horse wins at Newmarket, Epsom and finishes by winning Doncaster's St Leger. Appleby said: 'Dreams are free, aren't they? You have got to dream and you have got to be forward thinking. What do they say? Think big. What we (Godolphin) have done this weekend is historic. You get a lot of pleasure from it and it encourages you to try again.' There is no question Appleby will aim Desert Flower at Epsom. She had been the subject of sustained support and was sent-off the evens favourite; those who took cramped odds never had a moment's concern as she made all and fended off the Ollie Sangster-pair Flight (28/1) and Simmering (33/1). 'There have been very strong vibes coming out of the Godolphin team for weeks now so to push her close like that is a real feather in the cap for both our fillies,' said Sangster, who has only been training for three years. 'I don't know whether to be happy or disappointed – we were so close.' It took jockey William Buick an eternity to pull Desert Flower up and she showed all the exuberance that had been evident in a breathtaking racecourse gallop at Newmarket 18 days earlier; she is now unbeaten in five races and it will take a huge effort to stop her following up at Epsom. Such was Buick's delight when he came back to meet Godolphin's stable lads, he stood out of his irons and roared 'Awesome! Awesome!' – it was going to take a lot for Buick, an ardent Liverpool fan, to get a bigger kick than seeing his team win the Premier League but this eclipsed it for him. 'I'm a very happy man,' Buick said. 'This means the world. What a weekend for Godolphin, his highness Sheikh Mohammed and Dubai. It's unbelievable. She's incredible. She's very uncomplicated and she keeps galloping. She's all class.' Oh So Sharp, in 1985, was the last filly to win do the treble of 1000 Guineas Oaks and St Leger, while Nijinsky, in 1970, remains the last colt to have done the colt's treble of 2000 Guineas, Derby and St Leger. The last horse to attempt the unique feat was Camelot in 2012; he was beaten at Doncaster. 'What we have done this weekend is remarkable,' said Appleby. 'I was not surprised by what I saw from Desert Flower. I knew when she got to "the dip" that she would eat the hill in front of her and that's what she has done. Once she goes through the gears, she is away. 'I see no reason why she won't get further and I see no reason why we won't go to Epsom. It's something nice to think about and we will discuss it all as a team. For the moment, I just want to go and have a nice, relaxing drink!'
NZ Herald
04-05-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Mick On Monday: Godolphin's remarkable worldwide week
And a day before that, Godolphin's famous blue colours were also worn to victory in the Kentucky Oaks by Good Cheer, giving them a quite remarkable three-classics treble for the weekend. Godolphin also had Desert Flower, the favourite for the English 1000 Guineas, to be run overnight on Sunday, attempting to give the stable one of the greatest weekends of racehorse ownership ever. The Northern Hemisphere heroics come just 48 hours after Godolphin announced an enormous change to its Australian racing operation by parting ways with retained trainer James Cummings, their army of horses now to be spread around selected trainers. The move, which will see Cummings become a public trainer but retain a far smaller number of Godolphin-owned horses, was widely rumoured but is still a seismic shift on the Australian training landscape. It has been an interesting few years for Godolphin, with some industry insiders questioning a number of its major strategic decisions and even the scale of its operation. But when you win three of the world's great races in 24 hours and are owned by a Sheikh who rules Dubai, you don't really need to explain your decisions to anybody else. MARSH'S REMAINING GOAL The last fortnight may be a blur for Stephen Marsh but the Cambridge trainer has returned home with a clear goal in mind. Marsh spent a week in Hong Kong with stable star El Vencedor before coming home for a few days last week then heading to Adelaide, where he had Roctave in Saturday's South Australia Derby. Roctave finished near the rear of the field after racing outside the leader while stable rep Tardelli was a solid midfield finish in the Queensland Guineas at Eagle Farm as Marsh spread his resources far and wide, racing in three countries in just a few days. 'Both the 3-year-olds were coming to the end of their campaigns so I am not disappointed in them at all and they will come back lovely horses next season,' says Marsh. 'I really think Tardelli will be a Group 1 horse, probably at 1600m.' While looking forward to some routine, and some sleep, Marsh says last season's juvenile of the year Velocious could be his next traveller, with a Queensland trip possible if she performs well at Ellerslie on May 17. But Marsh has a more ongoing challenge in the next three months as he now sits equal with the Walker/Bergerson partnership on top of the national trainer's black-type premiership. Both stables have won 17 black-type races in New Zealand this season, Walker/Bergerson levelling back up when Towering Vision won the Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre Stakes at Te Rapa on Saturday. There are two black-type races at Rotorua this Saturday and one each at Ellerslie and Trentham the Saturday after, but then they start to dry up. So while the trainers' premiership could be out of Marsh's reach as he sits 19 wins behind the leaders, the black-type title looks a flip of the coin with so few races remaining. Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald
BBC News
04-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Desert Flower seals Guineas double for Godolphin
Desert Flower won the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket to complete a dream weekend for owners William Buick, claiming his first victory in the Fillies' Classic, rode Charlie Appleby's evens favourite to victory from the Ollie Sangster pair of Flight and was a fifth successive win for the unbeaten Desert Flower and followed Ruling Court's 2,000 Guineas victory on Saturday for Buick and trainer Mohammed's Godolphin team also won the Kentucky Oaks with Good Cheer and the Kentucky Derby with Sovereignty. More to follow.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sovereignty wins 2025 Kentucky Derby for Bill Mott at Churchill Downs
Sovereignty won the 151st edition of the Grade 1, $5 million Kentucky Derby on Saturday night in Louisville, besting a field of 19 horses beneath the Twin Spires on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs. Trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty went off at 7-1 odds. Post-time favorite Journalism, who went off at 3-1 odds, finished in second place, after being out-dueled in the stretch run by Sovereignty. This means that post-time favorites have now failed to win each of the last seven runnings of the Kentucky Derby. Baeza — who moved into the race as an also-eligible horse — ran third at 13-1 odds. Final Gambit (17-1 odds) was fourth. Sovereignty won the 2025 Kentucky Derby in 2:02.32. The Churchill Downs main track was sloppy Saturday following significant rainfall in recent days. Friday's Kentucky Oaks — won by Good Cheer — was also run on a sloppy track. Sovereignty departed from post position No. 16 in the Derby, becoming the fifth horse from that starting spot to win the Derby. He's the first winner from that post since Animal Kingdom in 2011. Mott, a 71-year-old from South Dakota, now has his second Kentucky Derby win. He won in 2019 with Country House (also on a sloppy track), but that win came following the controversial postrace disqualification of Maximum Security. The 38-year-old Alvarado, who is from Venezuela, now has his first Derby win in his sixth attempt. Sovereignty is a Godolphin homebred. It's the first Derby win for that ownership group. Godolphin also scored a homebred win in Friday's Kentucky Oaks with Good Cheer. Sovereignty's sire is Into Mischief and his mare is Crowned, by Bernardini. Sovereignty is now 3-2-0 in six career starts. The 2025 Derby was won by a true closer in Sovereignty, but the race had an influx of early pace courtesy of Bob Baffert's Citizen Bull, who ran the opening quarter-mile in 22.81 seconds and the opening half-mile in 46.23 seconds. It was 1:10.78 for the first three-fourths of a mile. Neoequos, American Promise and Owen Almighty were also part of this early pace-setting effort. Journalism made a big outside move during the turn for home to move up the field and take the lead from Owen Almighty. But the problem for the race favorite was that Sovereignty was right alongside him. Sovereignty had followed Journalism in moving up through the field on the outside. The two horses were essentially side-by-side entering the stretch run, and Sovereignty beat Journalism straight up in a head-to-head battle in the final furlong. Attendance for the 2025 Kentucky Derby was 147,406. Sovereignty paid $17.96 to win, $7.50 to place and $5.58 to show. Second-place Journalism paid $4.94 and $3.70. Third-place Baeza paid $8.38. Saturday's running of the Kentucky Derby was the first to take place on an off track since 2019, when Country House won the race (following the disqualification of Maximum Security) on a sloppy track. Mott conditioned both Country House, the 2019 winner, and Sovereignty, this year's champion. In fact, Saturday's race was just the 10th running of the Derby (out of 151 of them) to take place on a sloppy track. Three of these have come in the last eight editions of the race. The complete list of Kentucky Derby winners on a sloppy track is: Flying Ebony (1925), Citation (1948), Go for Gin (1994), Smarty Jones (2004), Mine That Bird (2009), Super Saver (2010), Orb (2013), Justify (2018) and Country House (2019), in addition to Sovereignty. Additionally, seven runnings of the Derby have been contested on a muddy track. Those winners were: Riley (1890), Worth (1912), Exterminator (1918), Clyde Van Dusen (1929), Hoop Jr. (1945), Tim Tam (1958) and Sunday Silence (1989). In 2017, Always Dreaming won the Derby over a track that was officially listed as 'wet fast (sealed).' On Friday, a star 3-year-old filly staked her claim with an impressive win in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks. Good Cheer — trained by Louisville native Brad Cox and ridden by Luis Saez — covered 1 1/8 miles on Churchill's sloppy main track to win the 151st running of the Oaks. A Godolphin homebred, Good Cheer topped a field of 13 3-year-old fillies in a winning time of 1:50.15. She won by 2 1/4 lengths. After being set as the overwhelming 6-5 morning-line favorite, Good Cheer also left the Oaks starting gate at those odds. She's now a perfect 7-for-7 in her racing career. Good Cheer delivered Cox his third win in the Kentucky Oaks. He also won the race with Monomoy Girl in 2018 and with Shedaresthedevil in 2020. Saez, the jockey, now has two wins in the Oaks. He was aboard winner Secret Oath in 2022. Curious about what 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan is up to? He's still racing, but he's yet to find the winner's circle since his triumph in last year's Run for the Roses. After winning last year's Kentucky Derby, Mystik Dan has now failed to win in each of his last five starts, with his latest defeat coming in the Lake Ouachita Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas on Saturday night. The race, a $200,000, 1 1/16-mile contest for horses aged 4 and older, was a tightly contested showdown between Mystik Dan and odds-on favorite Saudi Crown; Saudi Crown edged the 2024 Derby winner at the last moment, leaving Mystik Dan still in search of his first post-Derby win. Mystik Dan posted a second-place effort in last year's Preakness Stakes, an eighth-place showing in last year's Belmont Stakes, a sixth-place run in the Malibu Stakes in December and a ninth-place finish in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes in January, prior to Saturday's race. Who is Sovereignty? Meet the 2025 Kentucky Derby winner with these fast facts Godolphin wins its first Kentucky Derby, with a little help from Seattle Slew Sovereignty goes beyond a trainer's wildest dreams by winning Kentucky Derby 151 See the best of 2025 Kentucky Derby fashion: Suits, hats and dresses Our best photos, videos from KY Derby 2025: Sovereignty's win, fashion, celebrities Kentucky Derby 2025 complete order of finish and payoffs at Churchill Downs Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope is at the 2025 Kentucky Derby Mystik Dan, last year's Derby winner, seeks first victory since at Oaklawn Park
