Goodnight Olive Nabs First Grade 1 Score in Ballerina

The field of seven for the $500,000 Ballerina Handicap (G1) included the reigning champion female sprinter and winner of the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1).

There were also two other grade 1 winners, including one with more than $1 million in earnings, and three other starters with graded stakes laurels.

Then there was Goodnight Olive , who was making her stakes debut against a formidable array of 3-year-old-and-up female sprinters.

She had the longest active winning streak (four) in the field but was making the prodigious jump in her sixth career start from the allowance optional claiming ranks into a Breeders' Cup Challenge stakes that offered a "Win and You're In" spot in the Filly and Mare Sprint.

Of course, when all was said and done, that inexperience in stakes company did not matter in the least as the Ballerina proved to be a merry hop, skip, and a jump for First Row Partners and Team Hanley's Goodnight Olive. After surging to the lead in upper stretch, the daughter of Ghostzapper   posted a 2 3/4-length victory over 15-1 outsider Caramel Swirl  in the Aug. 28 edition of the Ballerina at Saratoga Race Course.

"I was surprised when she powered away in the stretch against this field," trainer Chad Brown said. "I was very impressed with this field, the more I delved into it, all the way down the line. I had a lot of respect for it."

The journey to become a grade 1 winner was not an easy one for the 4-year-old filly. Much like her sire, her appearances on the racetrack have been infrequent yet memorable. Her starts have been separated by two gaps of at least seven months as Brown and his team have been forced to bring her back to the races twice after bone chips were found in her ankles.

"There have been more not good phone calls about this filly than good phone calls because she hasn't run a lot," said Brown, who worked as an assistant for the late Bobby Frankel when he trained Ghostzapper, the 2004 Horse of the Year. "She's not unlike her dad, who I worked with, who wasn't on the track much but was very talented. But the team of owners always let me do the right thing with this filly and never pushed her beyond what she was ready to do. Now she's finally got it together. I really appreciate their patience, because when she is on the track and running she's doing with it ease and unchallenged."

Though Goodnight Olive was scheduled to run in the Shine Again Stakes, Brown was forced to scrap those plans when the race was canceled due to a lack of entries. The pivot was to the Aug. 7 allowance optional claimer at the Spa, and after an easy, 3 3/4-length victory, the Ballerina was circled despite a relatively quick three-week respite.

"You only get a few shots at these big grade 1 stakes at a distance that I think might be perfect for her, so we thought we'd take a shot," he said.

Irad Ortiz Jr. kept Goodnight Olive close to the pace as she was second, a length behind the pacesetting Bella Sofia , after a half-mile in a quick :44.50 with the aforementioned sprint champ, Bo Hirsch's Ce Ce , sixth, and the grade 1 millionairess, Juddmonte's Obligatory , last.

Once Bella Sophia faded to last, Goodnight Olive grabbed the lead entering the stretch and never looked back. Sent off at 5-1 odds while carrying the low weight of 118 pounds, she led by two lengths at the eighth pole en route to crossing the wire in 1:21.40. She paid $13.60.

Though there's a trip to the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland in her future, Brown was uncertain if she would run before then.

Godolphin's Caramel Swirl, a grade 2-winning homebred daughter of Union Rags   trained by Bill Mott, was second by 1 1/2 lengths over Obligatory, a homebred Curlin filly also trained by Mott.

Ce Ce, the 3-2 favorite who toted high weight of 125 pounds, never fired while finishing fifth. A 6 1/2-length winner of the Princess Rooney Stakes (G2) in her last start, she was off the board after placing in eight straight graded stakes for trainer Michael McCarthy.

"She's a little bit picky when it comes to the track, and today it was not her favorite," jockey Victor Espinoza said. "She will be OK. She will get them next time."

Goodnight Olive, bred by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings out of the Smart Strike 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 foals from Salty Strike, whose most recent foal is a winless 3-year-old Malibu Moon colt named Halfmoon .