Good Night Shirt repeats in Lonesome Glory

In a division that often finds itself dominated by an individual horse for an

extended period of time, Sonny Via's GOOD NIGHT SHIRT (Concern) seems well on

his way to establishing a long reign over the American steeplechase set

following an authoritative victory in the $150,000

Lonesome Glory Hurdle (NSA-G1) at Belmont Park on Saturday. Voted the

nation's best jumper last year, Good Night Shirt was passed the baton by

McDynamo, who earned the title in three of the previous four years, and it is

perhaps fitting that he's now won both editions of the Lonesome Glory, which

commemorates the Hall of Famer who earned a record five steeplechase titles in

the 1990's.

Sent off as the prohibitive 2-5 favorite while toting top weight of 158

pounds, Good Night Shirt tracked in second

behind the pacesetting Red Letter Day (Red Ransom) for the first 17 furlongs of

the 2 1/2-mile test over Belmont's firm inner turf. Though tugging hard passing

the stands a second time, Good Night Shirt readily relaxed for jockey Willie

Dowling as they went down the backside for the final time. Finally engaging Red

Letter Day rounding the final turn, Good Night Shirt moved past that rival at

the top of the stretch, cleared the final two fences with ease and drew off

impressively to finish 3 3/4 lengths in front. The final time of 4:24 4/5 easily

eclipsed both his winning time in last year's Lonesome Glory, 4:42 2/5, and the

course record of 4:33 4/5 set three years ago.

"Any idiot could train him," conditioner Jack Fisher quipped. "He does

everything right. Today he was giving away 20 pounds to just about everybody.

Big Brown (Boundary) can't do that. It's a lot of weight. But he's such a classy

horse. I've been riding and working him to get him used to it -- I'm 155 pounds,

so with the tack and everything it's about 170 pounds."

Good Night Shirt returned $2.80, $2.50 and $2.10 and keyed the $15.60 exacta

and $153.50 trifecta (7-1-5). Sermon of Love (Pulpit) closed with a rush inside

of horses to get his neck in front for place honors, returning $4.90 and $3.20,

while Red Letter Day held the show by a neck for a $7 mutuel. Duke of Earl (Ire)

(Ali-Royal), Dark Equation (Polish Numbers), Dalucci (Ire) (Daylami [Ire]) and

Best Attack (Bahri) were next under the line while Mon Villez (Fr) (Villez) left

the course before the final jump.

The Lonesome Glory was the second of three stakes victories in Good Night

Shirt's championship campaign last year. He also captured the Iroquois Hurdle

(NSA-G1) and later avenged a loss to McDynamo in the Breeders' Cup Grand

National Steeplechase (NSA-G1) with a score in the Colonial Cup (NSA-G1). Good

Night Shirt is now undefeated in three starts this year following victories in

the Iroquois and Georgia Cup (NSA-G1). He has now

bankrolled $720,563 from a line of 29-11-4-3 that encompasses both his flat and

jumping career.

Bred in Maryland by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Good Night Shirt is out of

the stakes-placed Hot Story (Two Punch), who is also responsible for the

multiple stakes-placed Story of a Lion (Lion Hearted) and the unraced juvenile

Under Shirt (Polish Miner). This female family has also yielded Grammy

Award-winning owner Burt Bacharach's talented trio of Heartlight No. One (Rock

Talk), the champion three-year-old filly of 1983, as well as Grade 1 winners Afternoon

Deelites (Private Terms) and Soul of the Matter (Private Terms).