Goodnight Olive's First Foal Headlines Keeneland Day 2

Not long after Goodnight Olive won her second Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) and retired from racing, there was anticipation not just about which stallion would be selected for her first mating but also about the arrival of their subsequent foal. Chelsey Stone Stewart of Resolute Racing, which owns the champion runner-turned-first-time broodmare, remembers exactly where she was when she got the word. "It was literally the day after the Super Bowl, and we were in New Orleans, about to get on the bus headed back home to the airport, and we got a text message of a baby photo, and you know, there he was, and we couldn't get home fast enough then," Stone Stewart said. The "he" doesn't have a name yet, but that's about to change. Just as there was ample anticipation for his birth, there might be even more for his appearance in the sales ring on the second day of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. For now, he's just called Hip 238. While the numerical association might not mean much, the fact he is out of a two-time champion who never finished off the board in 12 career starts and is by a stallion, Not This Time, who could end Into Mischief's seven-year run as North America's top sire is enough to put a little tingle in the belly of any Thoroughbred fan. Resolute head John Stewart's Pedigrees360 supported the decision to send Goodnight Olive to Not This Time, whose stud fee at the time was $150,000—$100,000 less than it was this year. Stone Stewart said that while the sire had not yet reached the heights of the past two years, the "stars aligned" and produced a "stunning" result. "I thought that they would be like a beautiful mating, and it just all came together," she said. "And then when she had him, and then the year that Not This Time happened, it made us look like we were geniuses. … It just really all worked out for the best, and I couldn't be happier." When you combine two superheroes of the equine world, it sets a pretty high bar. "He's exceeded all expectations of what you would hope he would look like, and then especially for a first foal," Stone Stewart said of the colt, who is part of Gainesway's consignment. "He's really stamped by both parents, but of course we see 'Olive' through him, through and through. He has her hip. She really stamped him. He's copy and paste of her, and it's really incredible all the way down to even the mindset; he has such a good mind on him, and I think that's so important on a lot of these younger colts, especially when they go into the sales process. It's just a lot for any horse to take on, but you want to make sure they have the good mentality and can just support themselves throughout the whole process." That mindset has come in handy as many people have come by to see the colt up close before he changes hands in the sales ring. Tuesday will be bittersweet for the Resolute team. The colt means a lot to them, but ultimately, they want what's best for him and hope that his new owners help reach the pinnacle of the sport. Balancing the emotions and expectations of the moment at hand is no easy task. "Selfishly, I hope that someone purchases him and they're like, 'Hey, would you like to stay in for a leg?' Just because I love him," she said. "I think he's going to be something special."