Trainer Brad Cox saddled the undefeated Godolphin filly Good Cheer to comfortably win the Grade 2 Golden Rod last weekend, but she wasn’t the most eye-catching among four Cox winners on that Nov. 30 card, composed only of 2-year-old races.
The Into Mischief colt Patch Adams in his second start won a seven-furlong maiden race by more than 10 lengths, his raw time of 1:20.77 yielding a 98 Beyer Speed Figure, just one point lower than the highest 2-year-old figure of 2024, Rated By Merit’s 99 from a Florida sires stakes in late October.
Patch Adams at odds of 4-5 dueled on a fast pace and finished third debuting over six furlongs at the Keeneland meet in October.
“We were running to win, but we didn’t have the screws tightened and I don’t think he had a favorable trip,” Cox said. “He drew inside, maybe asked to run a little too much too early, pressured the whole way, didn’t give in. He’s a good horse.”
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Owned by China Horse Club, Siena Farm, and WinStar Farm, Patch Adams is the first foal to race out of the stakes-winning Distorted Humor mare Well Humored. WinStar bred the colt, catalogued in but withdrawn from Keeneland’s 2023 September yearling auction.
Good Cheer, rating from fifth, jumped on the leaders early on the far turn of the Golden Rod, her win margin of 2 1/2 lengths the smallest of an impressive all-route campaign.
“She obviously is a two-turn horse, and she’s one who should get better. She’s not hard on herself,” Cox said.
Patch Adams and Good Cheer have taken up residence with Cox’s 40-horse string at Payson Park, his first winter at the Florida training center. Cox said he has no set plan for Patch Adams but didn’t rule out moving him directly into stakes competition. Good Cheer probably is on track for a February comeback run.
Immersive, the Cox-trained 2-year-old filly who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and will win an Eclipse Award, has returned to the racetrack after a freshening and tack-walked Thursday morning, Cox said. Immersive will winter at Fair Grounds.
So, too, will the Juddmonte homebred colt Disco Time, who followed a winning debut with a first-level allowance victory Nov. 30. Off an open-lengths seven-furlong victory, Disco Time won by 3 1/2 last weekend in a one-turn mile, earning an 81 Beyer, and Cox sees the son of Not This Time as a route prospect. He’s an intended runner next month in the Lecomte at Fair Grounds or the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park.
On the older-horse front, 3-year-old Most Wanted has been shipped to Payson after a second-place finish Nov. 29 in the $600,000 Clark Stakes. Most Wanted pressed the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Clark, just his fifth start. He tried to resist when collared in midstretch by Rattle N Roll, but lost by three-quarters of a length to that vastly more experienced older rival. It was Most Wanted’s first defeat.
“He’s going to move forward as a 4-year-old, but I don’t know where he’s going to run next,” Cox said.
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