On Friday, the 2022 Bewitch was the peak of the card at the Keeneland Racecourse, where G1 winning mare War Like Goddess successfully attempted to win the race for the second time. As she triumphed here in 2021, upon which she achieved some bigger prizes, her Friday’s run is once again perceived as a starting point for her before she shows off her talent among the stronger competition in more prestigious seasonal feats.
2022 Bewitch Stakes
The G3 turf race suffered from two scratches right away, so instead of seven four-year-old fillies and older mares, only five of them covered the distance of a mile and a half here. In the event offering the purse of $300,000, a five-year-old War Like Goddess (1-5) attempted to bag the Bewitch Stakes for the second consecutive year and under Joel Rosario, she managed to do so in quite a fine fashion in 2:31.2.
The William Mott bound bay sat behind the leading rivals, thronged between them in the final stretch, and took command to score the race by one and ¾ of a length before Family Way (7-2). Outsider Core Values (247-10) finished strongly to snatch up third place.
Still, the victory might haven’t been as straightforward as expected. While in 2021, War Like Goddess had already two outings under her belt when winning the Bewitch Stakes, this time, she commenced the season, and it showed.
The daughter of English Channel didn’t like being held behind leading Breeze Rider (11-1) and second Family Way, was shaking her head eagerly from time to time, but before the field covered half of the trip, the favourite settled and saved some energy for the finish.
Once the leader turned for home, Family Way attacked and tried to close the space between them to prevent War Like Goddess from rallying forward. However, the favorite is a brave and experienced mare who wasn’t put off by that, squeezed between her rivals, and left them behind without hesitation. Family Way kept digging in to threaten War Like Goddess; still, Joel Rosario had everything under control and piloted his mount surely towards the seventh victory out of her nine career starts.
Thus, Family Way had to settle for second, confirming to belong among the G3 company at least, though. Core Values charged forward in the final stretch to grab third place in front of tired Breeze Rider, with La Lune (223-10) never being a factor and finishing in the last place.
Friday’s victory was worth $186,000 to War Like Goddess, who surpassed $1 million in career earnings ($1,079,684) with seven wins in nine races.
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