Eclipse winner Goodnight Olive comes back best in Madison

Lexington, Ky.

In her first race in defense of her female-sprint championship, Goodnight Olive did not wait long to recapture her top form. It was just a question of whether she got their too fast to start the Grade 1, $600,000 Madison Stakes.

“I just didn’t want to be in a speed duel,” her jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. said. “She’s quick, but she can come from off the pace, too.”

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One might say she did both Saturday when she took back to a stalking position, circled rivals on the turn, responded to late urging from Ortiz and cruised to a one-length triumph in the seven-furlong race that was run on a cool, cloudy, spring afternoon at Keeneland.

It was the comeback race for the 5-year-old Ghostzapper mare who had been given a break after she won over the same seven furlongs of Keeneland dirt Nov. 5 in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

Call it as much a celebration as it was a sigh of relief for lead owner Steve Laymon, who saw the best horse he ever owned go off at odds of 2-5.

“Irad said he asked her to put away the speed,” said Laymon, whose First Row Partners owns Goodnight Olive with Jay Hanley. “He said she accelerated so fast for him. She kind of got to the front, and he said, ‘I only hit her one time, because I felt clear.’”

The race did not seem as close as the final margin suggested. Maryquitecontrary (8-1) closed to the outside and was creeping up on Goodnight Olive at the end, but she really was not a threat to prevent the Eclipse Award winner from winning for the sixth time in a row.

“She ran excellently,” jockey Luca Panici said of the 4-year-old runner-up who herself had won her last five races, most recently the Inside Information (G2) on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park. “We were against a champion. For a moment I thought that I had it, but there’s no complaints. She ran huge.”

Just not as big as Goodnight Olive, who was clocked at 1:23.12 over the fast, main track. That was in contrast to the 1:21.61 over the same layout in the Breeders’ Cup. Then again, that faster time came on the heels of three summertime races.

“I think that the trainer (Chad Brown) and his team,” Ortiz said, “they had great teamwork to get her back 100 percent.”

After Ortiz took Goodnight Olive back to mid-pack through the first half-mile, 2022 Cotillion (G1) winner Society (9-2) set the pace and was clocked with opening fractions of 22.53 and 45.93 seconds.

Goodnight Olive was well in hand when Ortiz asked her to make her move on the turn. Turning for home, she led by three lengths with a three-quarter-mile time of 1:10.51.

Panici took Maryquitecontrary into the four path and was making up ground, but there was not enough left, especially after Ortiz asked for just a bit more at the eighth pole.

Society faded to third, 5 1/4 lengths up the track from Goodnight Olive. Cocktail Moments (16-1) and Yuugiri (7-1) finished in that order in fourth and fifth.

Goodnight Olive paid $2.74, $2.14 and $2.10; Maryquitecontrary $4.20 and $3.05; and Society $2.16.

Brown was watching on TV from Aqueduct while dealing with a full card there, so Laymon got to field questions about what will be next for Goodnight Olive.

“It’s the classic line you always say,” Laymon said laughing. “We’ll see how they come out and look down the road. There are a lot of good races for her. If she comes out well, we might look at the (Derby City Distaff, G1) at Churchill on Derby day. But that’s four weeks, so that’s kind of quick.”

Laymon also suggested Brown eventually might take Goodnight Olive out of her sprinting comfort zone.

“If things went better, we’d see from there in trying to stretch her out a little bit,” Laymon said. “We’ll see. It’s a long season, and I trust Chad’s decision making.”