LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A great Kentucky Derby weekend for Godolphin got even better with the first Saturday stakes at Churchill Downs.
For Irad Ortiz Jr. – not so much.
Matareya, with nary a straw in her path, carried the Godolphin blue to an upset victory in the Grade 1, $750,000 Derby City Distaff, ending a win streak extending more than two years for heavily favored Goodnight Olive. A nightmare trip from an inside post for Goodnight Olive, ridden by Ortiz for trainer Chad Brown, found her third under the wire in the seven-furlong race.
“I was stuck the entire way,” said Ortiz, who was trapped inside of Wicked Halo and behind Matareya. “I couldn’t get out of there. I had tons of horse, just no place to go.”
The surprising defeat added to the Saturday misery of Ortiz, the four-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey who earlier in the day had suffered the extreme disappointment of learning that Forte, his scheduled mount and the morning-line favorite for the Derby, had been ordered scratched by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission veterinary staff.
Ortiz did win the very next race for Brown, the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile on Fluffy Socks, waving his whip under the wire in great animation in an obvious gesture to his prior frustrations.
Meanwhile, Matareya and Flavien Prat had a perfect trip in the Derby City Distaff, pushing past pace-setting Travel Column at the top of the stretch, then streaking to the line a length ahead of Wicked Halo. Goodnight Olive, the 2022 filly-mare sprint champion who had won seven straight races since being defeated in her debut in March 2021, was another length back in third as the 1-2 favorite in a field of six fillies and mares.
Matareya continued a run of good fortune here this week for Godolphin, which won its first Kentucky Oaks on Friday with Pretty Mischievous.
This was the second straight year Matareya won a graded race on Derby week at Churchill, following the Grade 2 Eight Belles on Oaks Day 2022. The 4-year-old homebred daughter of the late Pioneerof the Nile was coming off a runner-up finish behind Wicked Halo in the Matron at Oaklawn in late March in her first start in nearly eight months. She finished in 1:21.87 over a fast track, returning $12.12 as third choice, and getting a 97 Beyer Speed Figure.
“It was a very big effort and I’m very proud of her,” said Brad Cox, who now has trained Matareya to six wins and three seconds from 11 career starts for earnings of $1,517,217. “Flavien did a really good job of getting her into position.”
Behind Goodnight Olive, the order was Hot and Sultry, My Destiny, and Travel Column.
The $2 exacta (5-3) paid $35.74, the $1 trifecta (5-3-2) returned $21.96, and the $1 superfecta (5-3-2-1) was worth $38.43.
The Derby City Distaff, known in prior years as the Brown & Williamson or the Humana Distaff before being renamed in 2020, was the fourth of 14 Saturday races.
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