War Like Goddess Earns Glens Falls Repeat
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
War Like Goddess wins the Glens Falls Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
To no surprise, it was 2-5 favorite War Like Goddess who sailed home first in the $250,000 Glens Falls Stakes (G2T) Aug. 6 at Saratoga Race Course, taking the 1 1/2 mile turf event for the second year in a row.
Moving at a steady pace, the 5-year-old mare under Joel Rosario stayed comfortably in striking position from fourth for the first half of the race. As the seven-horse field went in fractions of :25.26, :51.53, 1:17.51, 1:42.33, and 2:06.65, George Krikorian's War Like Goddess rounded the final turn and began her charge.
Passing rivals Temple City Terror and Virginia Joy , the Bill Mott-trained daughter of English Channel took command in the stretch to move into first, winning the race on a firm turf course by 1 1/4 lengths in 2:29.33.
"They were sitting on a bunch of them early, but I guess late she had a little more kick than the rest of them," Mott said. "You always worry about if they're going fast enough up front to give her enough pace, and you don't want them to have to wrestle with her to keep her back off the pace. Joel did a good job. He has good hands, and the filly responded to him, and when he asked her to go on, she was there for him."
Trainer Bill Mott enjoys the Glens Falls win of War Like Goddess
Temple City Terror checked in second, a half-length ahead of Virginia Joy in third.
Mott's other Glens Falls starter, Petricor , chased the pace and faded to finish last of seven.
War Like Goddess won the Glens Falls in 2021, a year in which she also earned multiple other stakes victories. She started off with a win in the Orchid Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park and followed that up with a Bewitch Stakes (G3T) victory at Keeneland, which she won again this year before the Glens Falls. She scored the Flower Bowl Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga in September as well.
Her only non-winning start in the last seven was a wide third-place finish in the Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T) last November at Del Mar.
Her record now stands at 8-0-1 from 10 starts with earnings of $1,217,184. She paid $2.80 on a $2 win ticket.
Mott said War Like Goddess could return Sept. 3 in pursuit of a Flower Bowl double or could even eye taking on the boys in the Aug. 27 Resorts World Casino Stakes (G1T).
War Like Goddess has changed hands multiple times. First selling as a weanling to Falcon L & L Stables/Lawrence Hobson from the Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services consignment at the 2017 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, she was sold again in 2019 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June 2-Year-Olds & Horses of Racing Age Sale for $30,000 to H N D Bloodstock from the Hemingway Racing & Training Stables consignment.
Bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm, she is out of the North Light mare Misty North who has two winners out of three foals to race. Her unraced foals include 3-year-old filly Thecradlewillrock (Red Rocks ) and 2-year-old colt North of Bali (Bal a Bali ).