Aunt Pearl | Horse Racing Free Tips

Brad Cox Talks Breeders’ Cup Grand Slam, Monomoy Girl 6YO Campaign On Writers’ Room

Already considered one of the hottest barns in America heading into Breeders’ Cup weekend, Brad Cox’s stable provided an exclamation point to a monster 2020 season with a whopping four World Championship victories at Keeneland. Now leading all conditioners with 28 graded stakes wins this year and a legitimate threat to unseat four-time defending champion trainer Chad Brown at the Eclipse Awards, Cox joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Cox explained his barn’s breakout success the past few years, talked about what’s next for his Breeders’ Cup winners and hinted at some potential new tests for soon-to-be dual champion Monomoy Girl (Tapizar)’s expected return as a 6-year-old.

“It’s the quality of horse. We always left like we’ve been able to win races,” Cox said of his outfit’s rapid rise to the top. “The bulk of the stable was made up of claiming horses for several years. We had a run with Midwest Thoroughbreds that was, for me and my crew, very educational. We had the opportunity to see a lot of different types of horses. But over the last five years, the biggest change is the clientele and the horses for sure.”

Already with an enormously satsifying weekend under its belt, Cox’s operation got even more good news Sunday night, when Spendthrift Farm announced that Monomoy Girl would return to the races in 2021 after buying the mare for $9.5 million at Fasig-Tipton November.

“They asked me if I’d be interested in taking her back to campaign her in 2021, which was a no-brainer, but that was basically the extent of our conversation,” Cox said when asked about a potential schedule for the wildly popular chestnut. “She’s back here with us at Churchill, she came out of the race in fantastic shape. I think we’ll find out more, they’re still buying horses and they seem to be busy, but I think that facing the boys or racing internationally could be something that’s on their mind. And it’s something that we would be up for, to say the least.”

After Monomoy Girl, the headliner of the weekend for Cox was Essential Quality (Tapit), who dominated the GI TVG Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to run his record to three-for-three and likely salt away a divisional championship. The gray is the latest best hope for Godolphin to win its elusive first GI Kentucky Derby, and Cox talked about his impressions and immediate plans for the colt.

“He came out of the race really, really well,” he said. “We took him back to the track this morning, just jogged him. He’s full of himself at times. He’s a Tapit, so he has a lot of energy. But he seems to know when to turn it on or shut it off, which I think is a great trait of quality in a classy horse. I think the sky’s the limit and I don’t think there’s any kind of distance limitations with him. There really doesn’t seem to be a bottom with him so I’m very optimistic he could be a horse that gets a mile and a quarter. We’ll start training him again at some point in early December at Fair Grounds. It’d be nice to get a couple of races into him in February, March, April and hopefully he does enough to earn himself a spot in the Derby.”

Cox also indicated that he would consider a maiden European journey for his barn with GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf heroine Aunt Pearl (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), saying, “It would be nice to get a start into her this spring and then maybe look at Royal Ascot with her. Maybe a similar campaign that Sharing (Speightstown, second in Ascot’s G1 Coronation S.) had. I thought about that after she won the Jessamine because of one, her pedigree, and two, [winning with] no Lasix. I think that’s a benefit that’s going to help our horses internationally.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers broke down all the action from Breeders’ Cup weekend and, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, laid out their biggest takeaways from Fasig-Tipton’s ‘Night of the Stars’ and the early days of Keeneland November. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Double Has Cox ‘Looking Forward To Coming Up With A Game Plan For Next Year’

As he was preparing for another busy Breeders' Cup day, trainer Brad Cox was also enjoying his two victories Friday with Essential Quality in the TVG Juvenile presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and with Aunt Pearl (IRE) in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Cox reported both juveniles came out of their races well and he's excited about next year with them, although no firm plans have been made yet.

“It was a fantastic day,” Cox said. “Both came out of their races really well. So far so good. Both are a little tired, but they have a right to be. They both appear to have bounced out of the races very well. We'll see how things go moving forward. We don't have anything picked out as far as races, but we're looking very forward to coming up with a game plan for next year. These are both horses that have shown us a lot since we picked them up in the spring. It's a long process getting to a point like this and it's just a testament to the help, the assistants, the foremen, the exercise riders, the hotwalkers, the grooms, everyone we have in place. I'm just really proud of our staff and really appreciative of the opportunities owners have given us with really nice horses. Aunt Pearl was an expensive purchase out of Tattersalls last year and fortunate to have been given her. Obviously, Godolphin has a very well-bred homebred. Sometimes that's what it takes to get to a stage like this. It's very rewarding and we're very fortunate.”

Aunt Pearl already had shown she was speedy in her two victories leading into the Juvenile Filles Turf and Cox said the plan all along with to use that weapon. As the 2-1 favorite she shot out of the gate and never looked back, winning by 2 ½ lengths.

“The closer we got to the race and once we had our post position, I just thought with where we were and where the other speed was, it didn't make sense to take back or try to make her rate. Our plan was to take it to them. (Jockey) Florent (Geroux) and I talked and we both agreed we needed to get her out of the gate and into position. She was fortunate enough to do that and clear off going into the turn, which was huge. She really relaxed and showed her class. She shut off for him that second quarter and I think that's probably where the race was won. She was able to settle that second quarter. Going into the second turn she was traveling beautifully. They were coming, but she obviously had gas left in the tank.”

Essential Quality, who now becomes one of the early favorites for the Kentucky Derby next year with his Juvenile win, has now shown how versatile he is with his third straight win and third different running style.

“Obviously, it was different style with Essential Quality, but not a different tactic,” Cox said. “We expected to break and be close, maybe third or fourth. We knew there was some speed in there. They kind of got away from him early. He took some dirt. (Jockey) Luis (Saez) did a good job getting him to the outside down the backside. He settled for him down the backside, but I was very concerned where we were. I think he may have been eighth. But, then I saw the 45 (for the half mile) and thought to myself these horses back up. Luis started knuckling down on him and I saw he was making a move. At the quarter pole was when I thought we had a shot. I was hoping that move he started making wasn't going to flatten out. He's a 2-year-old, still learning. It's only the third race of his life. Once they straightened up, I started to feel more confident. Luis gave him a strong ride down the lane and he was able to get there. This horse has had three races and he's been a different position every time. I think he showed his versatility and that he can overcome things. He's good colt. He's shown us from get go that he's special. Very happy to be associated with him.”

Cox will have five more chances to add to his Breeders' Cup tallies Saturday, including Monomoy Girl, the morning line favorite for the Longines Distaff.

The post Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Double Has Cox ‘Looking Forward To Coming Up With A Game Plan For Next Year’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents The News Minute: Future Stars Friday Seals Juvenile Championships

Vequist and Essential Quality locked up Eclipse Awards in their respective divisions with victories in the Juvenile Fillies and Juvenile on the Breeders' Cup Future Stars Friday program at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., Paulick Report publisher Ray Paulick says in the latest Breeders' Cup News Minute.

Star of the day was trainer Brad Cox, who won his first Breeders' Cup race in 2018 and now has five championship victories after sending out Aunt Pearl to win the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Essential Quality to his Juvenile triumph.

The main track was very fast on Friday, but horses did win from off the lead if the pace scenario set things up for them. Horses won both on the lead and from off the pace on a turf course rated “good.”

Saturday's big day of nine championship races gets under way at 10:15 a.m. Eastern, with the first Breeders' Cup race scheduled for 12:02 p.m. Of note is the $260,779 Pick 6 carryover that spices up a wagering extravaganza for horseplayers.

Watch the Breeders' Cup News Minute below.

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Pearl Another Breeders’ Cup Gem

LEXINGTON, KY–The European-trained runners may have been shut out on opening day of the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland, but there would have been plenty of smiling faces in Ireland, France and England on Friday evening as ‘TDN Rising Star’ Aunt Pearl (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) kept her perfect record intact with a powerful front-running score in the GI Juvenile Fillies Turf under Frenchman Florent Geroux for trainer Brad Cox. Aidan O’Brien’s Mother Earth (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) made up significant ground late to grab second, mowing down the Ringfort Stud-bred Miss Amulet (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire})-herself a revelation this season in winning two stakes races after being purchased for £7,500 as a yearling-who checked in third. Stonestreet Stables’ G1 Prix Morny and G2 Queen Mary S. winner Campanelle (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) faded to fourth after chasing Aunt Pearl’s five-length lead early.

Bred by the partnership of John Malone’s Ballylinch Stud and Frenchman Lucien Urano’s Ecurie des Charmes, Aunt Pearl was presented in the ring during Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last year. At 280,000gns, she was the most expensive of nine fillies bought between Books 1 and 2 by Liz Crow and Brad Weisbord of BSW Bloodstock, who were shopping at the sale for the first time for a new venture headed by prominent American owners Sol Kumin and Michael Dubb to target European-bred fillies to run on the turf in the U.S.

“We put a group together and Mike and I were the first two who were apart of it, and then we filled it in with a few others,” Kumin explained. “They [Weisbord and Crow] went over there and did all the hard work and it was obviously a terrific job by the team scouting this horse out. From the beginning she was one of the better ones of the group and she’s probably turned out to be the best one.”

If all this sounds familiar, it should: two years previously, agent Mike Ryan had shopped Book 1 for Klaravich Stables and unearthed another daughter of Lope De Vega, Newspaperofrecord (Ire). Like Aunt Pearl, Newspaperofrecord won her first two starts by open lengths before wiring this race at Churchill Downs. For Kumin in particular, the Juvenile Fillies Turf is a race he is building an enviable record in; he won it for the first time in 2014 at Santa Anita with Lady Eli (Divine Park).

Aunt Pearl isn’t the only Grade I star for American connections to have graduated from Book 1 last year; agent Ben McElroy picked out Campanelle for 190,000gns on behalf of Stonestreet, one of three he signed for. To add further clout, the seventh-place finisher in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, Editor At Large (Ire), is also by Lope De Vega and was purchased from Book 1 for 260,000gns by Mike Ryan for Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm.

Coronavirus understandably put somewhat of a damper on American invaders at Park Paddocks this October, but Irishmen Ryan and McElroy were both on the buyers’ list and Aunt Pearl’s win all but guarantees that the already formidable American participation will continue to rise at Tattersalls.

Aunt Pearl is the latest feather in the cap for Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega, whose star has only continued to ascend over the years. He has had four Group 1 winners on three continents this year, with Newspaperofrecord adding the G1 Just a Game S. to her already illustrious record and Gytrash (Aus) and the 2-year-old Lucky Vega (Ire) becoming new top-level winners in Australia and Ireland, respectively. Lope De Vega’s G2 Champions Juvenile S. scorer Cadillac (Ire) was a respectable fourth in Friday’s G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf for Alpha Racing and Jessica Harrington, while Godolphin’s G3 Tattersalls S. winner La Barrosa (Ire) is one to look forward to next year.

While European-trained runners failed to get a win on the board at the Breeders’ Cup on Friday, a few others in addition to Cadillac made favourable impressions. Battleground (War Front) made up ground late to be second in the Juvenile Turf under Ryan Moore, just missing emulating his dam Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who won the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf the last time the championships were at Keeneland in 2015.

Owners Martin and Lisa Webb and trainer Nigel Tinkler kept the faith in jockey Rowan Scott, who rode out his claim this summer, bringing him over to ride G2 Flying Childers S. winner Ubettabelieveit (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) in the GII Juvenile Turf Sprint, and Scott gave the colt a beautiful ride to be third. Acting like a rider with plenty more experience under his belt, Scott kept a cool head when his mount blew the break, guiding him to the rail and letting him gradually pick off runners while taking the shortest route around the course. It is likely this is not the last we’ve heard from Scott, as well as Ubettabelieveit’s owners the Webbs, who were adamant on Thursday that a top four finish would spark big celebrations.

With a hugely formidable European contingent lined up for Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Turf as well as two Guineas winners in the GI Mile, the second day of the Breeders’ Cup holds plenty of chances for trophies to be taken back across the Atlantic.

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