Mother Goose Stakes: Tom Collins looks for four consecutive US winners

Just five fillies will fight for the prize in the Grade 2 Mother Goose, which has been won by Rachel Alexandra (2009) and Midnight Bisou (2018) in recent years.

The Morning Line suggests the market will be headed by the Brad Cox-trained Juju’s Map, the sole Grade 1 winner in the field. This $300,000 daughter of star dirt performer Liam’s Map is yet to finish out of the first two in five career starts and recorded a clear career-best performance at Keeneland last October when she fended off the talented Distinctlypossible to win the Alcibiades from the front.

Cox looked for a famous Breeders’ Cup victory a month later but Juju’s Map came up short behind Echo Zulu, the star juvenile filly in 2021. She was hammered by five-and-a-half lengths that day, but that is understandable given she wasn’t able to match Steve Asmussen’s star for early pace and therefore couldn’t utilise her biggest strength.

She proved that she had trained on from two to three with an all-the-way success in allowance optional claiming company at Churchill Downs last month and now heads to New York to try and beat up a better field under regular rider Florent Geroux. Although she has the ability to win the Mother Goose, I want to oppose her at skinny odds.

The first port of call when you analyse any race Stateside is to look for the speed and, despite Juju’s Map seemingly having the acceleration to lead this field, she will almost certainly be pushed in the early stages. Minor Stakes winner Midnight Stroll and talented local Venti Valentine do all their best running from the front, while the Chad Brown-trained Gerrymander could push forward after a luckless start in the Eight Belles last month.

Whether or not they can match Juju’s Map in the first two furlongs is a different matter, but they certainly won’t let her dictate the fractions at her own leisure. If she’s even marginally softened up then she could be vulnerable late, and that would set the race up perfectly for the Todd Pletcher-trained Shahama.

Pletcher has won the Mother Goose on six occasions, most recently with Zaajel 12 months ago, and looks to have found a nice spot for this intriguing filly. She boasts a completely different profile to his previous race winners as she began her career with four consecutive successes at Meydan for trainer Fawzi Nass.

She was facing a mediocre crop of fillies in Dubai, there is no doubt about that, but she couldn’t have been more impressive on each and every occasion, especially given she regularly missed the start. Pletcher picked her up in the spring and interestingly pitched her straight into Grade 1 company in the Kentucky Oaks, and she didn’t disappoint by finishing sixth of 14. 

Shahama jumped with the field and rider Flavien Prat immediately negotiated his way towards the fence. The duo came with a run turning for home but had to spin wide around faltering rivals and could never get within five lengths of the eventual winner, Nest, who subsequently finished second in the Belmont Stakes.

That was a highly encouraging introduction to US racing and, with this contest likely to pan out perfectly, Shahama can return to the winner’s enclosure and provide Pletcher with a record-setting seventh Mother Goose strike.

Recommended bet

Shahama (9.40 Belmont Park) @ 3.15