Perfection! Good Cheer wins 151st Kentucky Oaks for Brad Cox at Churchill Downs.

Cameron Drummond, Lexington Herald-Leader on May 2, 2025

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. —Good Cheer merged 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.

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.

Good Cheer was the 6-5 morning-line favorite for the race, and she went off in the Oaks as the clear 7-5 top choice.

She is now a perfect 7 for 7 in her racing career.

Cox now 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 in the Oaks, 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.”

This was Saez’s second Oaks win as a jockey. He rode Secret Oath to victory in 2022.

“Of course it was a big challenge,” Saez said postrace on NBC. “I feel like she deserved to be here. Of course, (to) wear the crown today, because she’s so special.”

“Keeping her in the clear, I think, was a positive,” Cox added about the trip given to Good Cheer by Saez.

Good Cheer is owned by Godolphin. Her sire is Medaglia d’Oro and her dam is Wedding Toast.

The list of races won by Good Cheer is a laundry list of accomplishments.

Her seven wins have included 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 Kentucky Oaks.

Longshot Drexel Hill (32-1 odds) ran second in the slop in the Oaks, with Bless the Broken coming in third at 17-1 odds.

Fourth place went to Bob Baffert’s Tenma at 8-1 odds.

A hot pace was set to begin the race from La Cara, the Mark Casse trainee who won the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes last month at Keeneland.

Friday’s Oaks featured fractions of 22.58 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 46.78 seconds for the opening half-mile.

Friday’s running of the Oaks went off just after 6 p.m., 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 that severe weather system caused the Churchill Downs track to shift from fast to sloppy.

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.