Goodnight Olive (USA)
April 30, 2018 – Living
Ghostzapper (USA) x Salty Strike (USA), by Smart Strike (CAN)
Family 2-d
April 30, 2018 – Living
Ghostzapper (USA) x Salty Strike (USA), by Smart Strike (CAN)
Family 2-d
Goodnight Olive was not the most durable of runners, making only 12 starts over three seasons on the track. She made those starts count, though, winning two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (USA-G1) and two other Grade 1 events. Her efforts were enough to earn her two Eclipse Awards as American champion female sprinter before her retirement to the broodmare ranks.
Race record
12 starts, 9 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third, US$2,196,200
2022:
2023:
Honors
Eclipse Award, American champion female sprinter (2022, 2023)
Assessments
Rated at 118 pounds in the Sprint category on the 2022 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, 22 pounds below overall highweight Flightline (the American Horse of the Year) and 8 pounds below the top-rated sprinter, Australian Horse of the Year Nature Strip but tied with grade 1 winner Letruska, American champion older female Malathaat, and American champion 3-year-old filly Nest as the best females on dirt.
Rated at 117 pounds in the Sprint category on the 2023 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, 18 pounds below overall highweight Equinox (the Japanese Horse of the Year) and 8 pounds below the top-rated sprinter, Hong Kong champion sprinter Lucky Sweynesse.
As an individual
A big, powerfully made dark bay or brown mare, Goodnight Olive has a deep shoulder and big hip. Jay Hanley of Team Hanley has described her as very intelligent and with a gentle, sociable disposition. She did not race at 2 due to an ankle chip, which recurred at the end of her 3-year-old season. She typically preferred to stalk the pace in her races.
As a producer
Goodnight Olive’s first foal, a colt by Not This Time, was born in 2025.
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Goodnight Olive was bred by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings. Sold for US$170,000 as a yearling through the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October sale, she was owned by First Row Partners and Team Hanley. Trained by Chad Brown, she was ridden to both of her Breeders’ Cup scores by Irad Ortiz Jr. Goodnight Olive was sold to John Stewart's Resolute Farm for US$6 million at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton "Night of the Stars" sale. Stewart had originally intended to keep her in training for a 6-year-old campaign but ended up retiring her to broodmare duty in February 2024.
Pedigree notes
Goodnight Olive is inbred 4x3 to two-time American champion sire Deputy Minister, 5x3 to two-time American champion sire Mr. Prospector, and 5x5 to the great international sire Northern Dancer. She is the third foal of multiple Grade 3 winner Salty Strike, a half sister to listed stakes winner Salty Response (by Cozzene). Salty Strike is also a half sister to stakes-placed Iroquois Girl (by Indian Charlie), dam of 2023 Ontario Colleen Stakes (CAN-G3) winner Mohawk Trail (by Pioneerof the Nile).
Lake Huron, the dam of Salty Strike and her siblings, won three of her 13 starts. Sired by 1991 Hopeful Stakes (USA-G1) winner Salt Lake (by Deputy Minister), she is a half sister to Pacific City (by Carson City), dam of 2007 Tokyo Chunichi Sports Hai Musashino Stakes (JPN-G3) winner Eishin Lombard (by Victory Gallop), and to Just One Rainbow (by Corporate Report), dam of multiple restricted stakes winner Bella Notte (by Quick Cat).
Lake Huron and her sisters were produced from the Lyphard mare My Rainbow, an unraced half sister to stakes winner Border Cat (by Storm Cat). The female line traces back to 1974 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Cosmah.
Books and media
Footage of Goodnight Olive’s win in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nlSmsLxvko.
Fun facts
Last updated: March 26, 2025
Race record
12 starts, 9 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third, US$2,196,200
2022:
- Won Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (USA-G1, 7FD, Keeneland)
- Won Ballerina Handicap (USA-G1, 7FD, Saratoga)
2023:
- Won PNC Bank Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (USA-G1, 7FD, Santa Anita)
- Won Madison Stakes (USA-G1, 7FD, Keeneland)
- Won Bed o' Roses Stakes (USA-G2, 7FD, Belmont)
- 2nd Ballerina Handocap (USA-G1, 7FD, Saratoga)
- 3rd Derby City Distaff Stakes presented by Jackson-Kendall Winery (USA-G1, 7FD, Churchill Downs)
Honors
Eclipse Award, American champion female sprinter (2022, 2023)
Assessments
Rated at 118 pounds in the Sprint category on the 2022 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, 22 pounds below overall highweight Flightline (the American Horse of the Year) and 8 pounds below the top-rated sprinter, Australian Horse of the Year Nature Strip but tied with grade 1 winner Letruska, American champion older female Malathaat, and American champion 3-year-old filly Nest as the best females on dirt.
Rated at 117 pounds in the Sprint category on the 2023 Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, 18 pounds below overall highweight Equinox (the Japanese Horse of the Year) and 8 pounds below the top-rated sprinter, Hong Kong champion sprinter Lucky Sweynesse.
As an individual
A big, powerfully made dark bay or brown mare, Goodnight Olive has a deep shoulder and big hip. Jay Hanley of Team Hanley has described her as very intelligent and with a gentle, sociable disposition. She did not race at 2 due to an ankle chip, which recurred at the end of her 3-year-old season. She typically preferred to stalk the pace in her races.
As a producer
Goodnight Olive’s first foal, a colt by Not This Time, was born in 2025.
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Goodnight Olive was bred by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings. Sold for US$170,000 as a yearling through the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October sale, she was owned by First Row Partners and Team Hanley. Trained by Chad Brown, she was ridden to both of her Breeders’ Cup scores by Irad Ortiz Jr. Goodnight Olive was sold to John Stewart's Resolute Farm for US$6 million at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton "Night of the Stars" sale. Stewart had originally intended to keep her in training for a 6-year-old campaign but ended up retiring her to broodmare duty in February 2024.
Pedigree notes
Goodnight Olive is inbred 4x3 to two-time American champion sire Deputy Minister, 5x3 to two-time American champion sire Mr. Prospector, and 5x5 to the great international sire Northern Dancer. She is the third foal of multiple Grade 3 winner Salty Strike, a half sister to listed stakes winner Salty Response (by Cozzene). Salty Strike is also a half sister to stakes-placed Iroquois Girl (by Indian Charlie), dam of 2023 Ontario Colleen Stakes (CAN-G3) winner Mohawk Trail (by Pioneerof the Nile).
Lake Huron, the dam of Salty Strike and her siblings, won three of her 13 starts. Sired by 1991 Hopeful Stakes (USA-G1) winner Salt Lake (by Deputy Minister), she is a half sister to Pacific City (by Carson City), dam of 2007 Tokyo Chunichi Sports Hai Musashino Stakes (JPN-G3) winner Eishin Lombard (by Victory Gallop), and to Just One Rainbow (by Corporate Report), dam of multiple restricted stakes winner Bella Notte (by Quick Cat).
Lake Huron and her sisters were produced from the Lyphard mare My Rainbow, an unraced half sister to stakes winner Border Cat (by Storm Cat). The female line traces back to 1974 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Cosmah.
Books and media
Footage of Goodnight Olive’s win in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nlSmsLxvko.
Fun facts
- Goodnight Olive’s name refers to the ghost of the “Broadway Flapper,” Olive Thomas, who is said to haunt the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York. Workers and performers at the theater traditionally say “Goodnight, Olive” to the ghost before leaving the premises.
Last updated: March 26, 2025