Perfection! Good Cheer wins 151st Kentucky Oaks for Brad Cox at Churchill Downs
Good Cheer emerged from a field of 13 3-year-old fillies to win the 151st edition of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks on Friday evening at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
Trained by Louisville native Brad Cox and ridden by Luis Saez, Good Cheer covered 1 1/8 miles on a sloppy main track at Churchill in a winning time of 1:50.15.
She drew clear by 2 1/4 lengths to win. Long shot Drexel Hill (32-1 odds) ran second in the slop in the Oaks, with Bless the Broken coming in third at 18-1 odds. Both of those horses were late running to the wire.
Fourth place went to Bob Baffert’s Tenma at 8-1 odds. Running in fifth was Anna’s Promise at 29-1.
A hot pace was set early in Friday’s Oaks by La Cara, the Mark Casse trainee who won the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes last month at Keeneland.
The Oaks featured fractions of 22.58 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 46.78 seconds for the opening half-mile. It was 1:11.36 for the opening three-fourths of a mile and 1:36.97 for the first mile of the race.
La Cara and Tenma battled at the front of the race until Good Cheer made her wide move entering the front stretch to win.
Good Cheer was the 6-5 morning-line favorite, and she went off in the Oaks at those odds as the clear top choice. She is now a perfect 7-for-7 in her racing career.
Cox, a Louisville native, has his third win in the Kentucky Oaks. He also won the race with Monomoy Girl in 2018 and with Shedaresthedevil in 2020. This was the third consecutive year that Cox had the morning-line favorite, but the first time in that stretch that he conditioned the winner.
“She’s awesome man. She’s just so classy to deal with,” Cox told NBC after the race. “I’ve said it for months. She’s so good, 7-for-7. She’s a perfect cheer, she’s awesome.”
After Good Cheer’s win, Cox listed some of the most prestigious races in the country as possible targets for his filly to take aim at in the coming months. This included the Acorn Stakes, the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama Stakes.
“The word I keep coming back to is her level of class. She’s incredibly easy to deal with,” Cox said in the postrace press conference. “She’s easy to train. ... She’s easy to be around. ... Works well every week. ... She just continues to bring it every week in her workouts and her races. She’s so consistent.”
This is Saez’s second Oaks win as a jockey. He rode Secret Oath to victory in 2022.
His winning ride this year aboard Good Cheer featured a sweeping move at the turn for home in which she was on the outside of four horses. Good Cheer spent the Oaks racing to the outside, midpack, prior to this winning move.
Was Saez concerned about taking her that wide entering the stretch run?
“When you’re riding those kind of horses, it doesn’t matter what move you make,” Saez said. “She did a fantastic job. I know I have a lot of horse, and she responded really well.”
Good Cheer — who won the Oaks from post position No. 10 — is a Godolphin homebred. Her sire is Medaglia d’Oro and her dam is Wedding Toast.
The list of races won by Good Cheer is officially a laundry list of accomplishment.
Her seven wins include the (listed) Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs in October, the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill in November, the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes at Fair Grounds in February, the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks at Fair Grounds in March and now the biggest of them all, the Kentucky Oaks.
“She’s a really nice filly and we’re so proud of her and so proud of all the guys back at the farm who do a lot of hard work raising her and getting her ready to go,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock.
The Oaks went off just after 6 p.m. Friday, which was about 15 minutes later than scheduled, following a severe weather delay that briefly halted racing at Churchill Downs during the afternoon.
A deluge of rain that came with the severe weather system caused the main track to shift from fast to sloppy at Churchill Downs.
“The track was a little bit wetter than I thought once we started walking over down inside, but I was confident that she would handle the track,” Cox said.
Good Cheer won a race by 17 lengths (yes, 17 lengths) on a sloppy track in an allowance race at Churchill Downs last September.
This year’s edition of the Oaks featured 13 horses, one fewer than the normal full field of 14. Five G — trained by George Weaver and to be ridden by Manny Franco — was scratched from the race Thursday after having a dip in form during her training.
Five G was drawn into post position No. 8 for the Oaks. After she scratched, the six fillies that were drawn to her outside all shifted over one gate position to the inside. Post position No. 14 wasn’t used in the Oaks, and there were no also-eligible horses for the race.
Thorpedo Anna, Fierceness race at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day
A pair of horses that you may recall from last year’s Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby were part of the undercard races Friday at Churchill Downs.
Fierceness, who was last year’s post time Kentucky Derby favorite, won the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes on Friday at Churchill as the 4-5 favorite.
Fierceness ran 15th in the Derby last year, but has otherwise delivered on his racing promise. Fierceness has now won three of his last four races: The Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga and now the Alysheba.
He also ran second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic last November at Del Mar.
Thorpedo Anna — the 2024 Horse of the Year who won last year’s Kentucky Oaks at Churchill, Acorn Stakes at Saratoga, Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga, Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar, among other races — ran seventh in the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes on Friday at Churchill Downs.
Thorpedo Anna was the 1-4 betting favorite for trainer Kenny McPeek in the La Troienne.
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 6:15 PM.
