Goodnight Olive Nabs First Grade Grade 1 in Ballerina

The $500,000 handicap ball seven-man field Ballerina Handicap (G1) includes the defending women’s sprint champion and Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) winners.

There were also two other elementary school winners, including one with over $1 million in earnings, and three other beginners with graded laurels.

Then there are Good night olives who made his game debut against a formidable array of female sprinters ages 3 and up.

She has the longest positive winning streak (four) in the field but is making her sixth career miracle jump starting from the rating required option allowance for Challenge stakes Breeders’ Cup offers a “Win and You’re in Filly and Mare Sprint” slot.

Of course, when all is said and done, the lack of experience in the holding company does not matter at least as Ballerina has proven to be a fun, skipping jump and a jump for First Row Partners and Team Hanley’s Goodnight Olive. After taking the lead in the upper part, the daughter of Ghostzapper posted a 2 3/4 long win over outsider 15-1 Caramel Swirl in the August 28 issue of Ballerina at Racecourse Saratoga.

“I was surprised how far she ran against this court,” coach Chad Brown said. “I’m so impressed with the field, the more I delve into it, from start to finish. I have a lot of respect for it.”

The journey to become the winning student of grade 1 was not easy for the 4-year-old boy. Like her husband, her appearances on the racetrack are sporadic but memorable. Her start has been separated by two gaps for at least seven months as Brown and his team were forced to return her to the race twice after bone fragments were found in her ankle.

“There were more bad phone calls about this than good ones because she didn’t run much,” said Brown, who worked as an assistant to the late Bobby Frankel while training Ghostzapper, Horse of the Year 2004. . “She’s not like her dad, who I worked with, who doesn’t have a lot of track record but is very talented. But the team of owners always let me do the right thing with this bad thing and never pushed. she exceeded what she was ready to do. Now she finally got it. I really appreciate their patience, because when she is on the track and running, she is. doing it comfortably and without being challenged.”

Although Goodnight Olive was scheduled to run in Shine Again Stakes, Brown was forced to cancel those plans when the race was canceled due to a lack of participants. Spindle was the claimant of the August 7 stipend option at Spa, and after an easy win, 3/4 of the length, Ballerina was placed in the inner ring despite a three-hour break. relatively quick week.

“You’ve only gotten a few shots at these tier 1 large stakes at a distance that I think might be perfect for her, so we thought we’d take,” he said.

Irad Ortiz Jr. kept Goodnight Olive close to pace as she finished second, a gap behind pacesetting Bella Sofia quick after half a mile: 44.50 with the aforementioned sprint champion, Bo Hirsch’s Ce Ce Friday, and the 1st grade female athlete, Juddmonte’s Obligatory Final.

With Bella Sophia gone, Goodnight Olive took the lead and never looked back. Thrown out at 5-1 while carrying a low 118-pound weight, she leads by two lengths at the eighth pole on her way to cross the rope in 1:21.40. She paid $13.60.

Although there is a trip to the Breeders ‘Cup at Keeneland In her future, Brown isn’t sure if she’ll run before then.

Godolphin’s Caramel Swirl, a purebred daughter who won the second prize of Union Rags Trained by Bill Mott, comes in second at half the length of the Obligatory, a purebred Curlin also trained by Mott.

Goodnight Olive, bred by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings from the intelligent mare Salty Strike, was purchased for $170,000 from the Summerfield consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale. The $499,950 earner is the third of four ponies from Salty Strike, the most recent of which is the 3-year-old unwinnable Malibu Moon pony named Half moon .