Now she’s won an Oaks, which is very hard to do, too,” Walsh said. The outlook is different now with a Grade I win. Pretty Mischievous had won four of five before that with a third in the Grade II Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs in November. The Kentucky-bred daughter of Into Mischief and Pretty City Dancer by Tapit sought a rebound after squandering the lead down the stretch in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and finishing 3 1/4 lengths behind Southlawn. Pretty Mischievous was in control by that point and didn't let up, winning the biggest race of her career in front of a crowd of 106,381. She made a move but not as good as at Oaklawn.” The track isn’t as fast as Oaklawn (where she won the Arkansas Derby) and I think she was struggling on a bit on it. “I got a good trip,' jockey Flavien Prat said of Wet Paint. Neither horse was a factor entering the backstretch, though Wet Paint recovered to get near the leaders at the stretch. Those more-heralded fillies both had 3-0 starts this season quashed as Botanical finished 13th. That quest must wait until next May, though Cox has four chances to win his first Derby outright with Angel of Empire the 8-1 third choice.

Wet Paint and 4-1 second choice Botanical were among a trio of fillies trained by Louisville-born Brad Cox, who sought his third Oaks win since 2018 and first since 2020 with Monomoy Girl, the champion 3-year-old. Godolphin had two Oaks entries, though much of the attention was focused on Wet Paint, the 5-2 morning line favorite and The Alys Look's stablemate. 'Two more jumps and we would have got it.” “We just missed,” said Irad Ortiz Jr., Gambling Girl's rider. Gambling Girl returned $12.84 and $8.36, while The Alys Look paid $13.80 while finishing 2 1/2 lengths back in third. But the addition of blinkers, I think, helped with that.” She did the same thing a little bit today. She has a tendency to kind of wait on horses. “She probably was the best horse in our last race. “We had a lot of confidence in her,” said Gaffalione, who earned his first Oaks victory along with Walsh. Pretty Mischievous covered 1 1/8 mile in 1:49.77 under jockey Tyler Gaffalione and paid $22.74, $10.10 and $7.40. And so to be able to win that just means everything.” “But to me, there’s only the one classic for fillies in the U.S. “I think we are reaping the rewards with the horses we’ve had over the last couple of years.

“Sheikh Mohammed has developed a beautiful broodmare band here in the U.S.,” said Michael Banahan, bloodstock director for Godolphin. As he pursues his ultimate prize, Sheikh Mohammed and Godolphin can savor a breakthrough in the Oaks.

I Saw You First by Darien Cox