Acorn Stakes 2025
The Acorn Stakes will be run at 1 ⅛ miles for the second straight year, as the first leg of the U.S. Triple Tiara takes place on Friday June 6 as the main event of the first day of Belmont Stakes weekend at Saratoga. Up until 2022, this race was run at one mile and then moved to 1 1/16 in 2023 before settling in at the 1 ⅛ it will be run at again.
It could be a wet track, with showers in the forecast Thursday evening and overnight, as well as throughout the day on Friday.
While we don’t have a monster name like Thorpedo Anna in this field, we do have a similar favorite and front-runner in Good Cheer, who is the overwhelming favorite heading into the 5:46 p.m. ET post time for Race 11 on Friday.
Acorn Stakes 2025 Entries, Horses, Jockeys, and Trainers:
| Post | Horse | Jockey | Trainer | Odds |
| 1 | Scottish Lassie | I. Ortiz Jr. | J. Abreu | 12-1 |
| 2 | Good Cheer | L. Saez | B. Cox | 1/2 |
| 3 | La Cara | D. Davis | M. Casse | 10-1 |
| 4 | Shred The Gnar | J. Ortiz | B. Lynch | SCR |
| 5 | Bless the Broken | J. Velazquez | W. Walden | 10-1 |
| 6 | Look Forward | U. Rispoli | M. McCarthy | 15-1 |
| 7 | Quickick | F. Prat | T. Amoss | 20-1 |
Unbeaten Good Cheer is 7-for-7 and she’ll look to go 8-for-8 in the premier filly race this weekend. She is one of three horses coming in off of a win, but none are as impressive as her Kentucky Oaks triumph. Second favorite Shred The Gnar was very impressive in an allowance at Churchill Downs during Derby weekend and Look Forward rides in following a win in the Eight Belles that same weekend.
The total purse for this race is $500,000 and $275,000 to the winner. Brad Cox is the only trainer in the field with a win in this race and he has two of them with Matareya (2022) and Monomoy Girl (2018).
Here are some thoughts on each horse at the odds at time of publish:
1. Scottish Lassie (12-1; I. Ortiz/Abreu): Lightly-raced 3-year-old Scottish Lassie came off of a six-month layoff to finish third in an allowance over a mile in the Belmont at Aqueduct meet on the first weekend of May. The winner of the Grade 1 Frizzette last year shipped across the country to California and ran fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies before the long break. The daughter of McKinzie and Bodebabe set the pace in that allowance race, but couldn’t finish it off and now has to go an extra eighth of a mile.
2. Good Cheer (1/2; Saez/Cox): After an impressive win in the mud at the Kentucky Oaks to keep her perfect record intact, Good Cheer is a heavy favorite to make it eight in a row here. Her two-length win under the twin spires was her fifth career stakes race win, including the Fair Grounds Oaks and Rachel Alexandra earlier this year. This will be her first New York start, with four wins at Churchill, two at Fair Grounds, and her maiden at Indiana Downs. She was the 6/5 favorite in the Oaks and shined as the class closer of the race. Luis Saez gets the ride again.
3. La Cara (10-1; Davis/Casse): La Cara was the pacesetter in the Oaks for a while, but whether it was the mud or something else, she finished ninth when all was said and done. The daughter of Street Sense and Cara Caterina has been extremely inconsistent as a 3-year-old, as she was masterful in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and fabulous in the G1 Ashland at Keeneland. In between, she ran a lackluster second in the Davona Dale and is coming off of that underwhelming Oaks effort. She is back at Saratoga now, where she broke her maiden, and where her father won the Jim Dandy and Travers back in 2007.
4. Shred The Gnar (SCR; J. Ortiz/Lynch): Arguably the most interesting horse in the field is Shred The Gnar, the daughter of Into Mischief and Aspen Light who is making her stakes debut as is still the second favorite. Two mammoth efforts back-to-back in breaking her maiden and then starting Kentucky Derby Friday with a romp over 1 1/16 gave trainer Brian Lynch and his connections the confidence to enter the Acorn Stakes. Her two wins have been by 13 combined lengths and her loss was by a head. Jose Ortiz rides for the first time, as Saez has had the other three.
Author’s note: Shred the Gnar was scratched on Friday morning.
5. Bless the Broken (10-1; Velazquez/Walden): Those looking for a price in the Acorn might want to look hard at Bless the Broken. She’s a board contender if nothing else, as the daughter of Laoban and The Nightingale has five stakes races to her name and has hit the board in four of them. She missed in the Demoiselle, but she’s been third to Good Cheer in both the Rachel Alexandra and the Oaks. She won the Bourbonette Oaks on the synthetic track at Turfway before going back to the dirt for a good showing on a muddy track on Derby Friday. If we get mud, she took to it well and she might be the one to pressure Good Cheer.
6. Look Forward (15-1; Rispoli/McCarthy): Will it be a clean sweep of the two main events for Umberto Rispoli and Michael McCarthy? Journalism seems to have a much better shot in the Belmont Stakes than Look Forward has here in the Acorn. The Bolt d’Oro and Troublesome filly looks more like a sprinter, as she has two wins at seven furlongs, a win at six furlongs, and has not run well in two distance races this year. She was sixth in the Ashland and seventh in the Honeybee, leaving her place finish at the Starlet last year as a distant memory.
7. Quickick (20-1; Prat/Amoss): McKinzie fillies bookend this race, as he sired Scottish Lassie and Quickick. The Kentucky-bred daughter of Graeme Six has not hit the board in three stakes tries this year. She was 4-for-4 in hitting the board as a 2-year-old, including a third-place effort in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and her maiden win at Saratoga. Ironically, Scottish Lassie was third in that race. Some felt she was building towards a big effort in the Kentucky Oaks and finished a career-worst seventh. It could’ve been the mud. It could’ve been something else, but there’s a reason she’s the long shot here.
Acorn Stakes Predictions
This is a tough race to bet. You basically have to hope that a price finishes second and/or third since Good Cheer is very likely to win the race and pay very little on straights, so filling out exotics with a number would go a long way.
So, Good Cheer it is on top with La Cara and Bless the Broken coming in second or third either way.
$20 Trifecta Key: 2 / 3,5 / 3,5
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