Horses to Watch: 5 on the list include 4 weekend stakes winners

In this biweekly series, racing analyst Keeler Johnson shares promising horses from his handicapping watch list, reviewing runners who have recently caught his eye and previewing horses scheduled to run back in the near future.

Results

Friday

Santa Anita, race 2: Silent Law became a watch-list winner when making her second start and her stakes debut in the six-furlong Anoakia for juvenile fillies. Favored at 2-5, the Bob Baffert-trained youngster led by daylight through fractions of 21.64 and 44.65 seconds on her way to victory by 3 1/2 lengths in 1:11.11. Clearly this daughter of Belmont winner Tiz the Law has serious speed and talent.

Saturday

Keeneland, race 6: Beating males proved to be no obstacle for Long Neck Paula, who picked up her second stakes win and her second win as a watch-list member, in the six-furlong Bowman Mill. The 2-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo was content to track splits of 21.59 and 45.17 seconds in second place before taking over in the final furlong to prevail by a half-length in 1:10.92.

Santa Anita, race 6: Ultra Power is worth watching again after battling to a narrow defeat in a 1 1/16-mile $80,000 allowance optional claimer. The Baffert-trained son of Curlin out of Unique Bella rated in fourth place for much of the race, then closed nearly two lengths in the final furlong to finish third by a head. The final time was a quick 1:43.27, and Ultra Power earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure from Daily Racing Form, so he looks fast enough to join the stakes ranks off this performance.

Sunday

Churchill Downs, race 9: Good Cheer brought her record to 3-for-3 with an eye-catching performance in the 1 1/16-mile Rags to Riches, becoming a watch-list winner. Entering off a 17-length allowance win at Churchill Downs, Good Cheer started as an odds-on favorite and overcame early bumping to rally past the leaders and dominate by 4 3/4 lengths in 1:44.00. A daughter of Medaglia d’Oro produced by the two-time Grade 1-winning mare Wedding Toast, Good Cheer looks like a serious 2025 Kentucky Oaks (G1) contender in the making for trainer Brad Cox.

Churchill Downs, race 10: Sovereignty is new to my watch list after launching a powerful last-to-first rally in the 1 1/16-mile Street Sense (G3) on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. The beautifully bred son of Into Mischief trailed through the first six furlongs and had more than five lengths to gain with five-sixteenths of a mile remaining. But down the homestretch he was full of run, exploding past the leaders to score by five lengths in 1:43.86. Sovereignty ran his final sixteenth of a mile in a quick 6.34 seconds and is improving by leaps and bounds for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, suggesting the Godolphin homebred is going to make his presence felt on the Derby trail this winter.

Off the Watch List

Prince of Monaco, winner of the 2023 Del Mar Futurity (G1), is off my watch list. Runner-up by narrow margins in the Woody Stephens (G1) and H. Allen Jerkens (G1) this year, the son of Speightstown has been retired with minor bone bruising and will stand at stud at Claiborne Farm for a fee of $30,000.