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Champion Essential Quality Takes the Southwest

Mother Nature did her level best over the last couple of weeks to try to wreak havoc with the seasonal debut of Godolphin's undefeated Eclipse Award winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Essential Quality (Tapit).

An atypically cold and snowy stretch of weather in and around Hot Springs left the track closed for several days and set maintenance crews the monumental task of first clearing the better part of a foot of snow, then caring for the strip which bore a resemblance more to a construction site than it did Thoroughbred horse track. Oaklawn triumphantly welcomed the return of racing this past Thursday, and Saturday, hosted a potentially mouthwatering match-up between the champ and the outstanding MGISW Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music). In the end, however, it was a one-horse show, as Essential Quality belied a near four-month absence and an interrupted training regimen to consolidate his position atop most every Derby poll with a sound defeat of California raider Spielberg (Union Rags). Jackie's Warrior was a valiant, albeit well-beaten third.

“He showed up and ran his race. It was somewhat of a relief to get this race over with,” said trainer Brad Cox. “The delay of the race, the track condition, just a lot of obstacles to overcome. Good horses do overcome, but it doesn't mean the trainer doesn't worry. We just want to wrap him in bubble wrap and get to the next race.”

Favored at 90 cents on the dollar while making his first start since securing the 2-year-old championship in the Nov. 7 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, Essential Quality jumped neatly from gate one and was almost immediately guided away from the inside by Luis Saez, as 6-5 Jackie's Warrior made the running from the two path in advance of the progressive Woodhouse (Speightstown). As he did with Mystic Guide in the Razorback a few races earlier, Saez kept the gray colt in the clear and out of harm's way while tugging against him through the middle stages before allowing him to take closer order on the second turn. Handled confidently while asked to win his race three wide off the final corner, Essential Quality eased alongside the dueling pacesetters after six furlongs in 1:13.59, easily claimed Jackie's Warrior in upper stretch and powered home a much-the-best winner. Spielberg was slowly into stride from the outside alley, took a mild run at the eventual winner passing the midstretch marker and kept on to be clearly second.

“The plan was to try to follow him [Jackie's Warrior] the whole way,” Saez said. “Everything came together. He broke pretty well and at the five-eighths pole he took the bridle and was really pulling me, but I was waiting, just trying to wait with him. We came to the stretch just so easy. He switched leads and just took off. What a nice horse. He finished very strong and I still had a lot of horse.”

Accorded 'Rising Star' status off an impressive four-length debut success over six furlongs of the Churchill main track on the Derby undercard Sept. 5, Essential Quality validated 19-10 favoritism to give his owners a second consecutive victory in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland Oct. 3. The second choice to Jackie's Warrior on Breeders' Cup Friday, the homebred got the race run to suit, as he closed from midpack off a furious pace to best Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) and next-out GII Kentucky Jockey Club hero Keepmeinmind (Laoban) by three-parts of a length. Jackie's Warrior attended those enervating fractions and was scarcely disgraced in finishing fourth.

Pedigree Notes:

Essential Quality gave his sire the first half of a sweep of the day's Derby preps, preceding by about 20 minutes the scintillating performance of Greatest Honour in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream. His Grade III-placed dam is a daughter of Contrive, the dam of 2005 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and Eclipse Award winner Folklore (Tiznow) and SW & GSP Divided Attention (A.P. Indy). Folklore is the dam of Rhodochrosite (Unbridled's Song), whose son Contrive (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) swept all three legs of the Japanese Triple Crown in 2020 and is preparing for a possible 4-year-old debut in the G1 Osaka Hai Apr. 4. Delightful Quality is the dam of a 2-year-old filly by Uncle Mo and is due to the latter's son Nyquist this year.

Saturday, Oaklawn
SOUTHWEST S.-GIII, $750,000, Oaklawn, 2-27, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:45.48, sy.
1–ESSENTIAL QUALITY, 119, c, 3, by Tapit
1st Dam: Delightful Quality (GSP, $253,900), by Elusive Quality
2nd Dam: Contrive, by Storm Cat
3rd Dam: Jeano, by Fappiano
'TDN Rising Star' O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Luis Saez. $450,000.
Lifetime Record: 4-4-0-0, $1,785,144. Werk Nick Rating: A.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Spielberg, 119, c, 3, Union Rags–Miss Squeal, by Smart Strike.
($1,000,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing,
Madaket Stables LLC, Golconda Stables, Siena Farm LLC and
Masterson, Robert E.; B-G. Watts Humphrey (KY); T-Bob
Baffert. $150,000.
3–Jackie's Warrior, 119, c, 3, Maclean's Music–Unicorn Girl, by
A.P. Five Hundred. ($95,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Robison, J. Kirk
and Judy; B-J & J Stables (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $75,000.
Margins: 4 1/4, 4 1/4, 2 3/4. Odds: 0.90, 7.20, 1.20.
Also Ran: Woodhouse, Last Samurai, Santa Cruiser, Saffa's Day. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

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Mystic Guide Romps Over Sloppy Track In Razorback Handicap

Godolphin homebred Mystic Guide had never run on anything other than a fast track during his six-race career, but the Ghostzapper 4-year-old colt took to a very sloppy surface at Oaklawn on Saturday, winning the 62nd running of the Grade 3, $600,000 Razorback Handicap by six lengths under Luis Saez.

Silver Prospector finished second, with 7-5 favorite Owendale another 1 1/4 lengths back in third and Hunka Burning Love fourth in the field of seven older runners.

Mystic Guide covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.33 and paid $6.40 to win as the 2-1 second choice in the wagering. He carried 121 pounds as the high weight under the handicap conditions.

Heavy rain hit the Hot Springs, Ark., track on Saturday and the Razorback was delayed for a few minutes as the track crew worked on the sloppy surface. The race had been postponed twice because of the winter storm that hit the South earlier this month.

Hunka Burning Love went to the front, out-hustling Long Range Toddy and Mystic Guide to take the early lead and setting fractions of :23.69, :47.61, and 1:12.99 for the first six furlongs. Long Range Toddy sat second, with Silver Prospector along the rail in third, alongside Mailman Money in the run down the backstretch.

Mystic Guide commenced his rally approaching the far turn, and was out in the middle of the track when he took the lead at the top of the stretch. He passed the mile marker in 1:38.08 and continued to widen his advantage in the final furlong.

Silver Prospector saved ground but may have been on the deepest part of the track along the rail. Owendale was never a factor, racing far back in the early stages of the race and rallying late to get third.

The win was the third from seven starts for Mystic Guide, who was produced from the A.P. Indy mare Music Note. He was making his first start since finishing second last Oct. 10 in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup to Happy Saver. Prior to that, Mystic Guide won the G2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga.

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Cox Too Busy To Reflect On Rise To The Top: ‘It’s Kind Of Been A Blur’

In the early spring of 2016, Livia Frazar was asked where she saw her husband's training career in five years. That trainer, then an up and comer obsessed with horses, was Brad Cox.

“I see him at the top,” she said. “He'll be at the top.”

Frazar was right, but it only took her husband four years to complete a meteoric rise and capture his first Eclipse Award as the country's outstanding trainer of 2020.

“I hope she's still seeing that five years from now or 10,” Cox said during a Feb. 1 interview at Oaklawn, where he has more than 40 horses stabled. “We'll see how it goes.”

It couldn't get much better than 2020, when Cox's powerful and far-reaching operation amassed 216 victories and a career-high $18,991,582 in purse earnings, figures nationally that ranked sixth and second, respectively, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization. He also ranked second in graded stakes victories with 30.

Highlights, stretching from January to December, included a record-tying four Breeders' Cup victories, two Eclipse Award winners (Monomoy Girl and Essential Quality) and capturing the Kentucky Oaks, the nation's biggest prize for 3-year-old fillies, for the second time in three years.

Twice Cox has had to resurrect his career after splitting with powerful Midwest Thoroughbreds in 2010 and again in 2012. Twice left with only a handful of horses, Cox recovered. The second reboot, clearly, came with measured vengeance since Cox now has divisions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, New York and Florida and trains for A-list clients such as Juddmonte Farms, Godolphin LLC, LNJ Foxwoods and Madaket Stables.

“It's kind of been a blur,” said Cox, 40, who grew up in the shadow of Churchill Downs. “You think back like, yeah, I was maybe coming here with 10 horses, 12 horses, and maybe five or six down at the Fair Grounds. It seems like it was not that long ago, really.”

The problem, Cox said, is there hasn't been a chance to really reflect on what he accomplished in recent years because he's managing a stable of more than 100 horses, in multiple jurisdictions, with an emphasis on what he likes to call “Saturday afternoon horses.” He was named an Eclipse Award winner Jan. 28. But, he noted, there are no timeouts in racing.

In addition to Monomoy Girl, Cox's breakout horse nationally, and Essential Quality, the trainer's rapidly growing resume includes Eclipse Award winners Covfefe (champion 3-year-old and champion female sprinter in 2019) and British Idiom (champion 2-year-old filly in 2019) and Knicks Go, who captured the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park.

Monomoy Girl, in 2018, gave Cox his first career Grade 1 victory in the $500,000 Ashland at Keeneland, first Kentucky Oaks victory and first career Breeders' Cup victory in the $2 million Distaff at Churchill Downs en route to an Eclipse Award as the country's champion 3-year-old filly. After injury and illness sidelined Monomoy Girl in 2019, she returned to win all four starts last year, including a second Distaff, and was named champion older dirt female. It marked Cox's seventh career Breeders' Cup victory. Essential Quality (Juvenile), Knicks Go (Dirt Mile) and Aunt Pearl (Juvenile Fillies Turf) were Cox's other Breeders' Cup winners Nov. 6-7 at Keeneland.

This weekend at Oaklawn will have a Breeders' Cup feel since Cox is scheduled to saddle six horses in five stakes races, notably Essential Quality in Saturday's $750,000 Southwest (G3) for 3-year-olds and Monomoy Girl in Sunday's $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares.

“It's almost like you have to keep your foot on the gas pedal,” Cox said. “We, obviously, try to be competitive, year-round, at every place we race. And that's demanding. It's not as if we run through the November meet at Churchill and say, 'OK, we're going to take two months and just shut things down.' That's not the case. We try to come out swinging at the Fair Grounds and then we're obviously preparing for Oaklawn.”

Cox said Oaklawn represents an important career building block since striking out on his own in the fall of 2004 after coming up under trainers Burk Kessinger, James Baker and Dallas Stewart.

Cox's early success – high win percentages and shrewd claims – helped him cultivate Arkansas clients like Mike Langford of Jonesboro, Steve Landers of Little Rock, Frank Fletcher of North Little Rock, Starsky Weast of Star City, John Ed Anthony of Hot Springs and Staton Flurry of Hot Springs.

Carve, who was owned by Langford, gave Cox his first career graded stakes victory in the $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (G3) in 2014 at Prairie Meadows and his first career Breeders' Cup starter later that year in the $1 million Dirt Mile (G1) at Santa Anita. Carve became Cox's first Oaklawn stakes winner in the $100,000 Fifth Season in 2015. He won three Arkansas-bred stakes in 2015 and 2016 with the nice sprinter Weast Hill. Cox and Landers teamed to capture the $500,000 Clark Handicap (G1) in 2018 at Churchill Downs with Leofric, a multiple Oaklawn allowance winner.

Cox entered Friday with 1,503 career victories, including 213 at Oaklawn, according to Equibase. He has 18 career Oaklawn stakes victories, one of the most recent coming with the promising Caddo River, an Anthony homebred, in the $150,000 Smarty Jones for 3-year-olds Jan. 22. Cox started his first horse in Hot Springs in 2006, won his first race in 2009 and was third-leading trainer last year with 26 victories.

“I'll never forget the day being stabled at Turfway and thinking I'm going to take horses to Oaklawn for the winter,” Cox said. “I left Kentucky and it helped me start picking up better horses and running for better purses and it just propelled things and we've tried to keep it going ever since.”

Flurry has had horses with Cox since 2013 after a friend touted the trainer as an “up and comer,” who actively played the claiming game.

Their first starter, Full Steam Ahead, won about three weeks after being claimed for $12,500 at the 2013 Oaklawn meeting. Their first stakes victory together came in the fall of 2015 at Louisiana Downs with Uncle Brennie in the $75,000 Sunday Silence. Cox and Flurry have since campaigned the top grass horse Mr. Misunderstood, a multiple graded stakes winner and near millionaire, and reached new heights when Shedaresthedevil won the $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks (G1) Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs. Shedaresthedevil won Oaklawn's $300,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) earlier in the year and was a finalist for champion 3-year-old filly of 2020.

Flurry, who races Shedaresthedevil in partnership, said Cox's career trajectory isn't a surprise.

“I know how dedicated he is,” Flurry said. “I guess the best word to use is 'obsessed.' He lives, sleeps, everything horses. He may take a break to go fishing or go to the gym now and then, but usually, almost every waking hour of the day that he's not spending with his wife and kids, is all about horses. I can't remember who said it, but if you want to be successful at something, you have to be obsessed with it. That's what Brad is. He's obsessed. He spots them right. He does everything with these horses, 100 percent.”

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‘Not Another One Like Her’: Monomoy Girl Begins 2021 Campaign In Bayakoa

If Monomoy Girl were a boy and a prospect for the 2015 NFL Draft, the evaluation probably wouldn't have been overly flattering.

Monomoy Girl was by Tapizar, not Tapit, purchased at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $100,000 not $1 million and debuted on the grass in September 2017 at Indiana Grand, not Saratoga.

But her story mirrors that quarterback from the University of Michigan, deemed too skinny and slow to make it big in the NFL. Tom Brady was a sixth-round selection in 2000, the 199^th player overall, and the seventh quarterback taken. Brady, 43, recently won his seventh Super Bowl and now has more rings than any NFL franchise.

Like Brady, Monomoy Girl's draft grade would call for a total rewrite for scouts, too. She's a two-time Eclipse Award winner, two-time Breeders' Cup champion and destined for enshrinement in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Measurables, in both cases, were meaningless.

“I think that's a fair assessment,” said Brad Cox, who has trained Monomoy Girl throughout her nearly flawless career. “There's not another one like her, as far as how she came up and transferred to the dirt. She's a special horse.”

Monomoy Girl will begin authoring another chapter, possibly the final chapter, in her brilliant racing career Sunday at Oaklawn when she makes her 6-year-old debut in the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles. Probable post time for the Bayakoa, which goes as the ninth of 10 races, is 5:11 p.m. (Central). Racing begins at 1 p.m.

The projected six-horse Bayakoa field from the rail out: Chance to Shine, Ken Tohill to ride, 115 pounds, 12-1 on the morning line; Another Broad, Joel Rosario, 115, 6-1; Finite, Ricardo Santana Jr., 119, 9-5; Istan Council, Joe Talamo, 115, 6-1; Our Super Freak, David Cohen, 115, 6-1; and Monomoy Girl, Florent Geroux, 119, even money.

Two other stakes are on Sunday's card, the $150,000 Dixie Belle for 3-year-old filly sprinters and the $150,000 Downthedustyroad for female Arkansas-bred sprinters.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong of Conway, Ark., have the program favorites in both races – unbeaten Abrogate (5-2) in the Dixie Belle and multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Bye Bye J (3-1) in the Downthedustyroad.

But Sunday's unquestioned headliner is Monomoy Girl, among the most accomplished horses ever entered at Oaklawn.

Monomoy Girl has a 13-2-0 record from 15 lifetime starts and earnings of $4,426,818. One of her losses was a disqualification (stretch interference in the 2018 Cotillion), the other also self-inflicted (lugged in and out late and beaten a neck in the 2017 Golden Rod). Seven victories have come in Grade 1 company, including the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff (2018 and 2020) and the $1 million Kentucky Oaks in 2018 at Churchill Downs. She has won at six tracks. She won her first two career starts on turf before switching, ultra-successfully, to dirt.

Monomoy Girl was the country's champion 3-year-old filly of 2018 and after missing 2019 because of injury and illness was crowned champion older dirt female of 2020. She was unbeaten in four races last year, including the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 7 at Keeneland in her last start.

“To me, she's one of the best fillies that's ever lived,” said bloodstock agent Liz Crow, who selected and purchased Monomoy Girl for her original owner, Sol Kumin. “I know that maybe sounds a little aggressive, but she did win the Breeders' Cup twice and she's one of only three fillies, I think, or four fillies to ever do that. She's the only filly in history to win the five Grade 1s she won as a 3-year-old, the Oaks, the Ashland, the Acorn, the Coaching Club and the Breeders' Cup. To me, she's done it all. She's really answered all the questions, and she deserves to be a Hall of Famer, I think, one day.”

The Bayakoa will mark Monomoy Girl's first start in Hot Springs. Cox said he's using the race as a prep for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17 at Oaklawn. Monomoy Girl had been under consideration for the Apple Blossom, among the country's signature two-turn events for older fillies and mares, in 2019 before being derailed and was “very, very close” to making her 2020 comeback, Cox said, in a late-season allowance race at Oaklawn. Instead, it came in mid-May at Churchill Downs.

“When we brought her back in the allowance race at Churchill, that was a lot of pressure, having been off 18 months, whatever it was,” Cox said. “Here, it's not as if we ever took her out of training. We backed off of her after the Breeders' Cup, but we never shut her down. We continued to train her lightly throughout November and December. I feel confident that she's pretty tight and pretty much ready to go. I'm excited to bring her up here. It's a great racing town and they appreciate good horses.”

Monomoy Girl arrived Wednesday night in Hot Springs after being based this winter at Fair Grounds.

Cox's go-to rider, Florent Geroux, has ridden Monomoy Girl in her last 14 starts. Geroux said Monomoy Girl has flourished because of a “big heart” and the resolve to reach the finish line first.

“She's a very gifted, talented mare,” Geroux said. “She takes her track with her. It's not like's only good at Churchill or Keeneland. She goes anywhere, East Coast, Midwest, and does great everywhere she goes. I think that's one of the main assets for her.”

The Bayakoa also will mark Monomoy Girl's first start since Spendthrift Farm purchased her for $9.5 million in November at Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale. Monomoy Girl will join Spendthrift's broodmare band upon retirement, but that figures to be in 2022 after the famed racing/breeding operation of founder B. Wayne Hughes opted to keep her training with Cox this year.

Spendthrift stallion sales manager Mark Toothaker said his affinity for Monomoy Girl began after a conversation with Arkansas horseman Dan White in the fall of 2017, shortly before the horse, then 2 for 2, made her stakes and dirt debut in the $80,000 Rags to Riches at Churchill Downs.

Toothaker said White was struck by Monomoy Girl's efficient action and believed she had a “big chance” to win. Monomoy Girl delivered, by 6 ½ emphatic lengths.

“That was really the first time I got her on my radar,” said Toothaker, who grew up in Van Buren, Ark., about 130 miles northwest of Hot Springs. “Boy, who would have ever dreamed she'd go on and do what she did. Just incredible. I think it goes back to the first time that I ever had a chance to see her, just as a fan. Just the efficiency that she moved with and the amount of ground that she covered. She's got what all the champions have got. Just got the killer instinct and she's going to beat you. She's going to run right by you and break your heart. She's got that 'it' factor. No doubt about it.”

In addition to Spendthrift, Monomoy Girl is now campaigned by MyRacehorse, which offers fractional ownership to investors, and Kumin, who bought back into the mare. Crow co-owns ELiTE Sales, which consigned Monomoy Girl to Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale and is an integral part of Kumin's racing team.

“I think this is just the cherry on top, this year,” Crow said. “I think Hot Springs is one of the best places in the country for racing fans and I really hope everybody enjoys getting to watch her run live. I think that's what this year is all about. Hopefully, she gives a lot of fans an opportunity to enjoy her.”

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