11.05.21

War Like Goddess Carriers Banner for Calumet Farm

By: Blood Horse

Photo Credit: Skip Dickstein

War Like Goddess Carriers Banner for Calumet Farm – BloodHorse

Calumet Farm-bred War Like Goddess is by their stallion English Channel.

For Calumet Farm, War Like Goddess is a superior example of a breeding plan coming together.

The 4-year-old daughter of Calumet-based stallion English Channel has registered steadily improving races while putting together a four-race win streak capped by an authoritative victory in the Sept. 4 Flower Bowl Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course. She will face a deep field of international runners in the $2 million Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

Bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm, War Like Goddess is out of the North Light mare Misty North. Second dam Misty Gallop is a half sister to stakes winners Blush Rambler and Romanowa. Calumet purchased Misty North, in foal to Cape Blanco , for $30,000 at the 2014 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

“We purchase mares that we think would be good fits with English Channel,” said Calumet general manager Eddie Kane of the mare, who since has been resold.

English Channel at Calumet Farm near Lexington, Ky., on Dec. 7, 2020. — Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt

While Misty Gallop has moved on, War Like Goddess has served as the latest example of the type of top horse 2007 champion turf male English Channel can throw. A year ago champion turf male Channel Maker helped English Channel finish as the leading turf sire in North America.Channel Maker will make his fifth career Breeders’ Cup start after United and Domestic Spending were scratched Nov. 4. That cleared the way for Channel Maker to make the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) field off the also-eligible list. Channel Maker finished third in last year’s Turf, the top placing in that race by an American-based runner.

This season War Like Goddess has been the top earner for English Channel as he again sits atop the turf sires list ahead of this year’s Breeders’ Cup.

Kane noted that Calumet would like to see English Channel’s foals do better at sales but he certainly has delivered for many of his owners. That success has helped Calumet finish as the leading breeder by earnings in 2019 and 2020.

“He’s been great if you want a racehorse,” Kane noted. “His horses have had success and they’re durable, so you’re able to race them to age 4, 5, 6, or beyond.”

While Channel Maker boasts that championship and the durability that’s typical of English Channels, War Like Goddess brings some flash to the table. Not only has she won all three of her starts at the 1 3/8-mile distance—the same route at which the Filly & Mare Turf will be contested Saturday—she also has delivered those victories in style; displaying a closing kick akin to a top miler.

In punching her Breeders’ Cup ticket with a victory in the Flower Bowl, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge event, she finished the final furlong in :11.8. When she surged past five rivals in the stretch of the 1 1/2-mile Bewitch Stakes (G3T) earlier this year at Keeneland, War Like Goddess completed the final quarter-mile in an estimated :22.14 under regular rider Julien Leparoux.

Photo: Skip Dickstein/Tim Lanahan

War Like Goddess wins the Flower Bowl Stakes at Saratoga Race Course

Racing for George Krikorian, War Like Goddess has won six of seven career starts—her one loss coming in a race trainer Bill Mott thinks might have been too short for her at 1 3/16 miles. But it got her splendid season started in February. During her four-race win streak, War Like Goddess has earned a higher Equibase Speed Figure in each victory.

Jockey Julien Leparoux guides War Like Goddess to the finish line and the win in the 44th running of The Flower Bowel at the Saratoga Race Course Saturday Sep, 4, 2021 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Photo by Skip DicksteinTim Lanahan — Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt

While Misty Gallop has moved on, War Like Goddess has served as the latest example of the type of top horse 2007 champion turf male English Channel can throw. A year ago champion turf male Channel Maker helped English Channel finish as the leading turf sire in North America.Channel Maker will make his fifth career Breeders’ Cup start after United and Domestic Spending were scratched Nov. 4. That cleared the way for Channel Maker to make the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1T) field off the also-eligible list. Channel Maker finished third in last year’s Turf, the top placing in that race by an American-based runner.

This season War Like Goddess has been the top earner for English Channel as he again sits atop the turf sires list ahead of this year’s Breeders’ Cup.

Kane noted that Calumet would like to see English Channel’s foals do better at sales but he certainly has delivered for many of his owners. That success has helped Calumet finish as the leading breeder by earnings in 2019 and 2020.

“He’s been great if you want a racehorse,” Kane noted. “His horses have had success and they’re durable, so you’re able to race them to age 4, 5, 6, or beyond.”

While Channel Maker boasts that championship and the durability that’s typical of English Channels, War Like Goddess brings some flash to the table. Not only has she won all three of her starts at the 1 3/8-mile distance—the same route at which the Filly & Mare Turf will be contested Saturday—she also has delivered those victories in style; displaying a closing kick akin to a top miler.

In punching her Breeders’ Cup ticket with a victory in the Flower Bowl, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge event, she finished the final furlong in :11.8. When she surged past five rivals in the stretch of the 1 1/2-mile Bewitch Stakes (G3T) earlier this year at Keeneland, War Like Goddess completed the final quarter-mile in an estimated :22.14 under regular rider Julien Leparoux.

Photo: Skip Dickstein/Tim Lanahan

War Like Goddess wins the Flower Bowl Stakes at Saratoga Race Course

Racing for George Krikorian, War Like Goddess has won six of seven career starts—her one loss coming in a race trainer Bill Mott thinks might have been too short for her at 1 3/16 miles. But it got her splendid season started in February. During her four-race win streak, War Like Goddess has earned a higher Equibase Speed Figure in each victory.

As she needed time to develop, War Like Goddess did not race until September of her 3-year-old season, winning her maiden debut on the turf at Churchill Downs. She came right back a month later to rally from last of 10 to win a 1 3/8-mile allowance-level race at Churchill, an effort that caught Mott’s eye.

“She won her first race and she was very green. In her second race, she was way back and closed up the rail—I mean, she just accelerated very well on soft ground,” Mott said. “So every time she’s gone out there, she’s shown she can run. She’s never really disappointed us.”

When the Breeders’ Cup previously was at Del Mar in 2017, the Filly & Mare Turf was contested at 1 1/8 miles. The longer distance this year fits War Like Goddess.

“I’m glad that’s the direction that it went,” Mott said. “The only thing is, it drew a lot of top international runners too this year. It’s going to be a challenging race.”

Bill Mott<br> at Oct. 27, 2019 Santa Anita in Arcadia, CA. — Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt

Bill Mott

Mott also trains Channel Maker. He said the English Channels are good racehorses. The sire also boasts Canadian champions Heart to Heart , Strait of Dover , Johnny Bear , Interpol , and Admiralty Pier ; as well as Peruvian champion Faenon.

“They’re not real popular at the sales sometimes because everybody is trying to get a (Kentucky) Derby horse, but they’re solid,” Mott said. “We have War Like Goddess and Channel Maker here (at Del Mar for Breeders’ Cup), and they’re two horses that have run right at the top level.”

War Like Goddess has been some kind of value. As a weanling she sold for $1,200 at Keeneland November to Falcon L & L Stables and Lawrence Hobson from the consignment of Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services. In 2019 she would be purchased for Krikorian when H N D Bloodstock went to $30,000 to land her from the Hemingway Racing & Training Stables consignment at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales’ June 2-Year-Old and Horses of Racing Age Sale.

That increase in price suggests War Like Goddess was beginning to show some positive development. That would only continue as Mott patiently waited for the right time for her debut. And since then, it’s been racing success after racing success as she’s earned $713,684.

She’ll have the opportunity to add to that significantly Saturday. And should she win, War Like Goddess would become the second Breeders’ Cup winner bred by Calumet (joining 1997 Sprint, G1, winner Elmhurst ) and the first since Brad Kelley took control of the farm in 2012.