Applause! Applause! for 6-for-6 Good Cheer

Fair Grounds stakes recap by Joe Kristufek (Hodges Photography/Jan Brubaker photo of Good Cheer winning the G2 Fasig-Tipton Fair Grounds Oaks under Luis Saez)

New Orleans, La (March 22, 2025) – Sent off as the overwhelming .40-1 favorite in Saturday’s $400,000 Fasig-Tipton Fair Grounds Oaks at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, the Godolphin homebred Good Cheer did not disappoint her many backers, taking the key Kentucky Oaks prep in convincing fashion to remain perfect from six starts. Three of Good Cheer’s wins have been at trainer Brad Cox’s Churchill Downs home base

Aggressively placed in fourth early, the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro chased the pacesetting Ahavah through moderate early fractions of 23.91 and 47.81. She was asked the question midway through the far turn by jockey Luis Saez, loomed to the outside of the frontrunner at the top of the stretch, and worked her way to past to win going away by 3 ½ lengths. She stopped the timer in 1:43.44 for the 1 1/16 miles distance over a fast main track.

 “She’s pretty special,” said jockey Luis Saez after his first Fair Grounds Oaks win. “She reminds me of Secret Oath (whom he won the Kentucky Oaks aboard for trainer D. Wayne Lukas in 2022) when I first got up on her. She’s very kind and does everything perfectly. At the top of the stretch, she gave me a big turn of foot. That’s a crazy filly.” 

Good Cheer, who won the Fasig-Tipton Rachel Alexandra (G2) earlier in the meet, is bred to be a good one. Her dam Wedding Toast won eight of 14 lifetime starts and banked over $1.8 million. Cox has now won this race four of the last six years, but one of the other three fillies – Bonny South (’20), Travel Column (’21) or Tarifa last year — went on to capture the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1). This year might be different.

“This is a very good filly and we’re really proud of her,” trainer Brad Cox said. “She had to work hard to finish up, but she finished very well. She’s not a massive filly. We followed the plan and got two races in her as a 3-year-old. Now we have six weeks between now and the Kentucky Oaks to get her ready.”

With the win, the undefeated Good Cheer, raised her career bankroll to $877,630 and she now leads all 3-year-old fillies with 145 Kentucky Oaks points. Good Cheer won her debut at Horseshoe Indianapolis, then swept three races at Churchill Downs: an allowance race, the Rags to Riches and the G2 Golden Rod while stamping herself as a most worthy replacement on the Kentucky Oaks trail to her unbeaten stablemate Immersive, the Eclipse champion and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine for Godolphin.

The pacesetting runner-up Ahavah, the little sister of Grade one winning sprinter Vahva, was making just her second career start and first around two turns. She earned 50 Oaks points for second. Gowells Delight (now with 41.5 points), Quickick (34 points) and Her Laugh (30 points) rounded out the top five and earned 25-15-10 points respectively.

As the heavy favorite, Good Cheer paid $2.80, $2.10 and $2.10. Ahavah paid $4.00 and $3.80 and Gowells Delight returned $5.00 to show.  

Additional quotes:

Jose Ortiz, jockey on Ahavah (Runner-up)

“I’m very proud of her. Really was a big step up today competing against the best filly in the world you know. She broke from the gate very sharply. I was going forward from that point.  I took the lead, she took some pressure all the way and she ran second. I think it was a huge step up for her and we are very proud.”

Kenny McPeek, trainer of Gowell’s Delight (3rd)

“There was some left, right traffic at the head of the lane. Brian (Hernandez, Jr) was in a really good spot, it looked like she could’ve been second at least. I need to watch the head on, but a little disappointed she didn’t get second.”

Tom Amoss, trainer of Quickick (4th)

“I thought it was kind of an even race. They’re not all going to be ready to go at the beginning of May.”

Irad Ortiz, jockey of Her Laugh (5th)

“I thought I had something left for the end to fight with the champion but (that was not the case). She was travelling nice every step of the way. Let’s see how she comes back because I thought I had more horse.”