Beverly D. international scouting report: Rain Goddess

Rain Goddess brings an outstanding level of form as she tries to buck two historical trends. Trainer Aidan O’Brien has yet to win the Beverly D. (G1), and only one sophomore has captured the sister race to the Arlington Million (G1), Euro Charline (2014).

Yet another Galileo in the Coolmore fold, Rain Goddess is the first registered foal from the Danehill Dancer mare Where, herself a daughter of the 1000 Guineas (G1) winner of 2005, Virginia Waters. Rain Goddess is intensely inbred (2x4) to Sadler’s Wells, sire of Galileo and broodmare sire of Virginia Waters. Moreover, since Sadler’s Wells’ close relative Nureyev appears in the fifth generation, Rain Goddess is saturated with this superb bloodline.

Like this season’s four-time Group 1 star Winter, Rain Goddess was transferred to O’Brien from the retiring David Wachman. She raced just once under his care as a juvenile, and little was expected in her debut at Leopardstown on Irish Champions Weekend. Overlooked at 50-1, she made a mockery of those odds when extricating herself from a pocket to burst clear and win going way.

“She'll be a nice filly for Aidan next year,” Wachman told irishracing.com.

His prediction has borne out.

Making her first start for O’Brien in the 1000 Guineas Trial (G3) over the same course and distance, but slower ground, Rain Goddess was given a gentle comeback in seventh (blaze face on the rail).

A boost for 1000 Guineas favourite Rhododendron? Stablemate Hydrangea lands the @BallylinchStud 1000 Guineas Trial at @LeopardstownRC: pic.twitter.com/3VQizVIuOH

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) April 8, 2017

That was just the beginning of a busy schedule. Rain Goddess wheeled back two weeks later for the Fred Darling (G3) at Newbury, where she was a late-running fourth. The winning Dabyah is a seven-furlong specialist who doesn’t quite see out a mile, but has run respectably at that trip when third in last fall’s Prix Marcel Boussac (G1) and fourth to Winter in the Coronation (G1) at Royal Ascot.

Watch: Frankie Dettori guides favourite Dabyah to a front-running success in the Dubai Duty Free Stakes. pic.twitter.com/YO7TzjNu4O

— Newbury Racecourse (@NewburyRacing) April 22, 2017

Looking as if she needed a mile by this point, Rain Goddess got her chance in the French 1000 Guineas (G1) and finished a one-paced fifth. Spot her white blaze and black silks, in the right group initially before she gets herded over to the middle of the converging pack.

 

If the form at the top hasn’t worked out, the also-rans have ended up being the best in the race. Sixth-placer Roly Poly, the stablemate whom Rain Goddess nipped on the line, has since been runner-up to Winter in the Irish 1000 Guineas (G1) and Coronation before turning a Group 1 double of her own in the Falmouth (G1) and Prix Rothschild (G1). And Senga, only 11th here, roared right back to take the French Oaks (G1).

Rain Goddess remained at a mile but dropped into listed company for Royal Ascot’s Sandringham. She finally looked to put it all together, only to be nailed late by Wesley Ward’s Con Te Partiro flying from even farther back. Note that O’Brien added a tongue tie to her gear for her next race, so more may have been going on at the finish.