In recent years, the Cox barn's arsenal of talented 2-year-olds has rapidly developed in terms of both quality and quantity. While many of the stable's runners have reached future success alongside their back-to-back Eclipse Award-winning trainer, nearly all of them received their early schooling at Keeneland under Cox's assistant trainer Tessa Bisha.

Mo Strike was one of the first juveniles to arrive at the Brad Cox barn at Keeneland this spring, putting in three recorded works in May. When the colt showed early talent, he was among the first group that Bisha sent on to Churchill Downs. A few weeks later, he broke his maiden there on debut and is now pointing toward the GI Hopeful S.

Bisha is passionate about training 2-year-olds. While she enjoys overseeing the older horses, she said that they usually have a good handle on their job already. With 2-year-olds, however, she has the opportunity to teach them and get their racing career off on the right foot.

“I'd say judging the two-year-olds is the biggest part of my job–making sure that they get on the right pathway for success for whatever life has in store for them as far as racing goes and I feel like beyond that as well,” Bisha said. “What I look for is I want them to be comfortable with what we're asking them to do. They need to come in with an open mind and a good attitude, and we try to help them get there if they're not when they come in. We go back to the gate early and often and we make it a laid-back and calming experience. We really focus on making everything a good experience for them.”

Every year after the Keeneland Spring Meet has wrapped up, Bisha's incoming class of 2-year-olds starts to arrive. During her busiest months of May and June, she will have up to 85 juveniles under her care. The most precocious among the group will head to the Churchill Downs race meet and later, other promising youngsters will ship to Saratoga. When training at Keeneland concludes for the summer, the remaining pupils will stay under Bisha's care either at Ellis Park or Turfway Park.

Tessa Bisha oversees a morning of training at Keeneland | Sara Gordon

“It's a bit of a revolving door in that sense,” she said. “We really try to watch them breeze every week without trying to say if this horse is going to win the Derby or if it's going to be an absolute bust because they can grow and develop so much. They love proving you wrong and showing you how little you know, so we try to make sure that they all have the opportunity to basically become the best individual they can be with whatever talent and heart they bring to the table.”

With that mindset, Bisha said she aims to keep an open mind when a horse joins her stable, regardless of any reputation that might precede them.

“You have to create an environment where they know what's expected of them,” she said. “With the babies, you have an opportunity to develop them into being an individual that's not too tough on the track, not silly in the gate and not fractious in the barn. If you can get them to act right, they're usually kinder on themselves and handle their job better.”

Bisha first began working for Cox in 2016 as an exercise rider before taking on the role of assistant trainer. In her first year overseeing the incoming 2-year-olds, she estimates that she had about 30 or 40 juveniles in her care. When stable star Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) came onto the scene, the influx of new trainees began soon after.

With the growth of their program, Bisha said that she has had to evolve her managerial role. She finds herself spending more time in the office checking and rechecking registration papers and set lists, going over charts with Cox, and putting in notes from blacksmith visits or for vaccination schedules.

“We have a staff that helps with all that, but I always feel better if I have a hand in it too,” she admitted. “The more people that can check the boxes, the more you know it's thoroughly done.”

Countless top-level horses have been under Bisha's care since Monomoy Girl's outstanding career. Essential Quality (Tapit) will always be one that stands out to Bisha. The four-time Grade I winner spent his early days at Keeneland and returned to Lexington to race several times during his juvenile and sophomore campaigns.

“He came in here and was just head and shoulders above everybody else,” Bisha said. “Things with him were really streamlined, so there was no guesswork. He followed his own mind and liked to do his thing, but for the most part he never missed a work, he went straight to the races, and that was just him.”

Asked which horses she is most proud to have had a hand in bringing up, Bisha named off a few trainees that required a bit more legwork. One recent favorite is GIII Ohio Derby winner Tawny Port (Pioneerof the Nile), who was in her care almost all of last year as a juvenile.

Tessa and Grade III stakes winner Bubble Rock (More Than Ready) | Sara Gordon

“He actually broke his maiden at Turfway over the winter,” she recalled. “I think those types of horses are really rewarding because they have more of, I guess a long-shot feel in our barn. To know that you helped develop them and you let them go on their schedule, that can be very hard, but it's a big success when it works out.”

Bisha said that as their program has continued to develop, one thing she believes they do best is keeping an open mind when it comes to helping their trainees progress.

“When we launched into this 2-year-old program and it started to really take off and get the numbers behind it, Brad and I would have heated discussions over how it was working out and what we were seeing,” she said. “After horses showing us how wrong we were and us eating crow a few times, I think we kind of learned that you really just have to let the horse develop and show you who they want to be.”

Bisha explained that every year, they make an effort to try something new or use a certain tool more frequently–maybe putting blinkers on more readily for a workout, warming up without the pony with a first-time starter, or going back to the starting gate one extra time before breezing.

“It might just be something small, but we try to stay open minded and focus on improving all the time and not just using our ego or what we think we know to get in the way of improving the program,” she noted.

Last year, Bisha was a finalist for the TIEA Dedication to Racing Award. Prior to her time with Brad Cox, the Washington native worked at tracks in Southern California and all along the East Coast. These days, as her former pupils are making headlines at high-profile racetracks like Saratoga, she prefers to stay back home in Lexington training up the next class of future stars.

“I've been to a lot of different tracks so I feel like I've seen enough and done enough to where I'm pretty content just staying here and doing this,” she said. “I don't mind traveling, but I find myself most fulfilled by training the 2-year-olds, so I don't feel any need to stray away from that.”

The post Patience is Key as Tessa Bisha Develops Next Class of Cox Stable Stars appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Howard, who sent out the final starter of his 43-year career Monday, Oct. 11 at Indiana Grand, had his final Keeneland starter Oct. 8 when Wing Commander ran fifth in an allowance race.

“I am officially done,” Howard said Thursday afternoon. “I had a couple of horses that Shug graciously took over and I put them in his name. I'm just an assistant trainer now.”

Howard is eighth all-time in Keeneland victories with 166 and is 13th in stakes wins with 20. His first stakes victory came in the 1990 Blue Grass (G2) with Summer Squall. He won the Ben Ali (G3) five times, including in 2003 with Horse of the Year Mineshaft. Howard also won the race in 1999, 2004, 2005 and 2016.

The post Neil Howard Makes His Way Back To Keeneland Winner’s Circle In New Role appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

“It was 3:00 in the afternoon, and I looked down the shed row to see all webbings laying open, no horses in the stalls; it was sad,” Abrego said. “I remember somebody told me, 'You know, you better find another job, because Brad has only two horses!' 

“Brad came into Barn 47 and told me, 'Please don't go anywhere, I'll keep you on your salary if you stay here. I'm going to get more horses.'”

That he did. The Cox operation is now setting new milestones: the barn had four Breeders' Cup winners at the 2020 World Championships, and has three top candidates on the Kentucky Derby trail early in 2021.

“You know, sometimes bad things come, and then very good things come after,” Abrego said from his office at Oaklawn Park. “The rest is a very good story. It's amazing, really.”

The 35-year-old native of Guatemala has been at Cox's side since 2009, working his way up from a part-time groom and part-time hotwalker to one of the trainer's top assistants. Abrego had only ever worked with a few horses, and had never seen a racehorse before arriving in the United States at the age of 22. He only walked hots before taking the job in Cox's barn.

It isn't hard to see that Abrego's long-time loyalty to the trainer runs deep; he's one of the first ones at the barn in the morning, and one of the last to leave it at night. He can be found in most of the photographs of the barn's top runners, and he still answers Cox's calls with a crisp, respectful, “Yes, sir.”

For the past five or six years, Abrego has made Oaklawn Park his winter home, handling a barn full of horses as well as the high-quality ship-in runners. Last weekend, for example, champions Monomoy Girl and Essential Quality shipped up from New Orleans before triumphing in local stakes races.

Assistant trainer Jorje Abrego celebrates a victory at Oaklawn Park

The chestnut phenom Monomoy Girl is the one who has Abrego's heart, however. 

“I love every single horse in my barn, and maybe Brad Cox will win 100 more Grade 1 races, but I'll always remember her,” Abrego said. “She was the first Grade 1 for the team, and it's amazing to have a 6-year-old filly still running.”

The daughter of Tapizar gave Cox his first G1 win in the 2018 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, and has now won two editions of the Breeders' Cup Distaff, in 2018 and in 2020. She missed over a year of racing between her championship-defining victories, but came back with a vengeance to dominate her division in 2020. 

Monomoy Girl sold to Spendthrift Farm for $9.5 million at the end of 2020, and B. Wayne Hughes decided to return the champion racemare to Cox for a final season of racing in 2021. In her first start as a 6-year-old, Monomoy Girl posted a facile victory in the G3 Bayakoa Stakes on Feb. 28 at Oaklawn.

Her racing success isn't the only thing Abrego loves about the mare.

“This filly is so sweet, too, especially when you give her a peppermint,” he said. “When this filly is walking the shed row, she's like a pony. You'd never think she would run like that.”

The excitement is ramping up in the whole barn this year, as Cox has three runners with points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. The trainer has never started a horse in the Run for the Roses, but with 2-year-old champion Essential Quality in the barn, as well as prep winners Mandaloun and Caddo River, the first Saturday in May can't come quickly enough.

“I just hope we have the right one in the barn, the winner,” Abrego said, smiling.

Jorje Abrego, left, schooling Essential Quality in the paddock at Oaklawn before the colt's win in the G3 Southwest Stakes

At the end of the day, win or lose, Abrego knows he has the best job in the world. He has a hard time expressing his gratitude to Cox for taking a chance on him all those years ago, but he'll never forget it.

“When I told him this, believe me, it came from my heart,” Abrego relayed. “I told him, 'I don't think I could ever work for somebody else.' I love this job too much. 

“I don't feel like Brad Cox is my boss, really. The guy treats me like family.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I Don’t Think I Could Ever Work For Somebody Else’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2014, Solis is spending his time for now in Lexington and in the mornings can be found at Keeneland galloping horses for trainer Wesley Ward.

“My oldest son, Alex II, just took a job with Gainesway (as Director of Bloodstock) and my middle son, Andrew, lives here, so I am just following them and keeping up with the grandkids,” said Solis, 56. “I like to stay active and keep fit, and Wesley asked me to help out galloping horses.”

The helmet that Solis estimates he has had for 10-15 years has been back on active duty for the past couple of weeks.

“He galloped for me earlier in the year and then went back to California,” Ward said. “I told him if he wanted to help out like (veteran jockey) Julio (Garcia) that would be fine.”

And how is that new, yet experienced, hand working out?

“Unbelievable,” Ward said.

The post Hall Of Fame Assistant: Alex Solis Joins Team Wesley Ward appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

The 53-year-old Delgado had been employed by Morey since 2016, but only recently relocated to Lexington. Prior to working for Morey, Delgado was a long-time employee of retired trainer Julio Canani.

He is survived by his wife, Graciela, and four sons, Miguel Angel, Ricardo, and twins Edgar and Oscar. The latter three work as horsemen in Southern California, while Graciela and Miguel Angel reside in Mexico.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay to transport Delgado's body to Mexico for burial and to cover funeral costs.

Read more at the Daily Racing Form.

The post Lexington-Based Assistant Trainer Miguel Delgado Killed In Car Accident appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post