by Myra Lewyn

Reigning champion steeplechaser Good Night Shirt took command soon after the start and comfortably won the demanding three-mile Iroquois Hurdle Stakes for the second consecutive year on Saturday.

Trained by Jack Fisher for owner Sonny Via, Good Night Shirt powered clear in the stretch and scored by more than seven lengths over Sweet Shani (NZ), the runner-up in the Royal Chase for the Sport of Kings Stakes on April 17 at Keeneland Race Course.

The $150,000 Iroquois, run over 18 fences at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee, is considered a Grade 1 race by the National Steeplechase Association.

A seven-year-old Concern gelding, Good Night Shirt notched his third straight victory. He won the Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup Hurdle Stakes to cap his championship season in November and his 2008 bow in the Irongate Capital/W Hotel Georgia Cup Hurdle Stakes on April 12 in Atlanta, both considered Grade 1 races. 

Good Night Shirt covered the distance in 5:47.60 under regular rider Willie Dowling, who was delighted with the way the big gelding performed on Saturday.

“That’s the best he’s ever jumped in all the races I’ve ridden him in,” he told the Associated Press. “He just got into a relentless gallop.”

Good Night Shirt posted a front-running win in last year’s race, in which he showed plenty of staying power to defeat two-time Iroquois winner Sur La Tete and three-time champion McDynamo.

Good Night Shirt won three of five starts over the jumps in 2007, including the Lonesome Glory Hurdle Stakes, also deemed a Grade 1 race, and set a single-season earnings record of $314,163 en route to divisional honors.

Bred in Maryland by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Good Night Shirt is out of the stakes-placed winning Two Punch mare Hot Story. He improved to eight wins in 18 career starts over the jumps.

Myra Lewyn is daily news editor of Thoroughbred Times