After a triumphant gate-to-wire score in Saturday's Grade 3 Monmouth Cup, Godolphin's Proxy will shift his focus to the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup on September 2 going 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga Race Course. The JCGC is a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic in November at Santa Anita Park.
The 5-year-old Tapit bay emerged from only three week's rest to capture the nine-furlong Monmouth Cup at its namesake Jersey Shore oval, setting a moderate pace down the backstretch with Calibrate applying some pressure nearing the far turn and Whelen Springs joining the fray approaching the quarter pole. But Proxy kicked clear of them both to win by 2 1/2 lengths while securing a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.
The winning effort followed a disappointing eighth in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on July 1 at Ellis Park, an effort that trainer Michael Stidham said was due to a speed-favoring track.
“I knew going into the Stephen Foster that the track was a conveyer belt for speed. We drew the one-hole with tons of speed outside of us,” Stidham said. “We knew we were going to get a ton of dirt in our face and on that track, it was just impossible to make up any ground. That's exactly what happened. We got checked around the first turn, got ourselves way back and were unable to make up any ground, so it was a race we just draw a line through.”
Proxy has now won three graded stakes over as many racetracks, capturing the Grade 1 Clark in November at Churchill Downs before narrowly defeating Last Samurai in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap in April. During his sophomore season, he ran against Mandaloun and Midnight Bourbon in Fair Grounds Race Course's Kentucky Derby prep series, including runner up finishes in the Grade 3 Lecomte and Grade 2 Risen Star. Stidham opted to put Proxy on the shelf following that spring and brought him back for a 4-year-old season, which resulted in a 6-2-2-2 record.
“If you go back to his 3-year-old year, where we were running in some of the Derby preps, I made comments that I didn't think he was quite where he needed to be to keep pushing forward to try to make the Derby,” Stidham recalled. “So we backed off, gave him time, brought him back for his 4-year-old year which was decent. Now, he seems to really be putting things together as a 5-year-old.”
Stidham said the Monmouth Cup was not initially the plan, but that he didn't want to run Proxy in a race like the Jockey Club Gold Cup from a two-month respite.
“Now, we have almost five weeks going into the Jockey Club Gold Cup with a horse coming off a nice win,” Stidham said. “We wanted to get his confidence back up. He's doing well. He came out of that race in good shape. Now our focus is the Jockey Club Gold Cup and hoping he runs well there, and we can start thinking about Breeders' Cup Classic.”
The Jockey Club Gold Cup will be Proxy's first 10-furlong start since finishing a late-closing second to Stiletto Boy in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in March.
Through an 18-6-6-2 record, Proxy boasts earnings of $2,024,970. A Kentucky homebred, Proxy is out of the dual Grade 1-winning millionaire Include mare Panty Raid. He is a half-sister to Micheline, a graded stakes winner on the grass.
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