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Cox, McPeek Readying 2-Year-Old Divisions For Ellis Park Meet

A lot has changed in the past year for trainer Brad Cox — not only for the better but stamping him among the best.

Ellis Park racing fans have been able to watch up close the evolution of one of America's hottest trainers since Cox captured his first training title anywhere in 2015 at the Pea Patch, whose 2021 meet begins Sunday and runs through Sept. 4.

In just the year since Cox earned his third Ellis Park training title last summer — this one in a tie with Kenny McPeek at 10 wins apiece — he has:

won his second Kentucky Oaks with Shedaresthedevil, who captured America's premier race for 3-year-old fillies mere days after the 2020 Ellis meet ended prematurely to accommodate Churchill Downs' pandemic-delayed Kentucky Derby Week.
won a record-tying four Breeders' Cup races last fall at Keeneland, giving him seven victories overall in horse racing's world championships.
started off 2021 with the most lucrative victory so far in his burgeoning career with Ellis Park 2-year-old product Knicks Go in Gulfstream Park's $3 million Pegasus World Cup.
been honored as the 2020 Eclipse Award winner as North America's outstanding trainer. He also had horses earn his fourth and fifth Eclipse Awards as the best in their division, the latest being two-time Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Monomoy Girl and Breeders' Cup Juvenile hero Essential Quality.
won his first Triple Crown race victory with 2-year-old champ Essential Quality taking the Belmont Stakes. That came five weeks after Cox finished second in his first Kentucky Derby appearance with Mandaloun and a close fourth with Essential Quality. And if the Churchill Downs stewards ultimately disqualify Medina Spirit from his Kentucky Derby first-place finish for a medication infraction, Cox will also have his second Triple Crown race win.

Even as his reputation grows internationally – he's blown well past national recognition — Cox will remain a strong presence at Ellis Park. The track not only provided his first training title but, at that same 2015 meet, the mare Call Pat won the Grade 3 Groupie Doll to give Cox his second victory in a graded stakes.

This summer will be different in one regard for Cox. He won't have the 60 or 70 horses he's had the past few years at Ellis when stall space was plentiful. This summer, with Churchill Downs' backstretch closed for off-season training while a new turf course is installed, overwhelming demand for stabling at Ellis will limit Cox to 38 stalls. Cox, who also has sizable divisions at Indiana Grand and in New York, will send much of his overflow to Turfway Park, which will be open for summer training.

“I think it will impact us a little bit, just from the standpoint of how many we can get in,” Cox said Friday morning at Churchill Downs. “Obviously with Churchill being just two hours away (from Ellis), it will make you think a little bit about shipping from Lexington or Turfway to Ellis with a young horse. But we'll manage it the best we can. We're looking forward to getting started there. We had a good day with our first day of entries, so everything is positive there.”

Cox has four horses entered for Sunday's opening card: three maidens and Swill in an allowance race.

“We're hopeful that we can continue to maintain a lot of starts there like we have the last few years,” he said.

Cox horses expected to run at the meet include Klein Racing's Field Day, winner of three of his last four starts, including in Churchill Downs' William Walker Stakes. Field Day is likely to run July 4 in the $60,000 Dade Park Dash Overnight Stakes for 3-year-olds at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf.

“I'm hoping a bunch of our 2-year-olds will start coming around in regards to be ready to run,” he said. “I'm hopeful we can make a presence with our 2-year-olds. I think we will. We have a good group of colts and fillies that still have to run and that are still going through their paces (training) at Churchill and Keeneland. We're hoping to have one for just about every maiden race there is.

“… The purses there are really good. All the allowance races and maidens are above $50,000. So that's positive and makes for healthy racing in Kentucky through the summer. I'm looking forward to getting things started on Sunday.”

While she won't race at the meet, among Cox's notable horses that will be training at Ellis is Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil. “She's going to point for the Grade 1 race (Clement L. Hirsch) at Del Mar on Aug. 1,” he said. “We'll do pretty much all our training there.”

Even Cox horses that stable but do not run at Ellis Park have been glowing advertisements for the track surface. Monomoy Girl was at Ellis Park all summer before making her first start after the 2017 meet. British Idiom, Cox's 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and 2-year-old filly champion, likewise got much of her preparation at Ellis Park before going to Saratoga to race.

Cox and McPeek again are likely to be regular rivals in Ellis' 2-year-old races, starting with Sunday's sixth race for 2-year-old fillies. McPeek also has had a big year since winning the Ellis title, taking the delayed 2020 Preakness Stakes with Swiss Skydiver, voted the 3-year-old filly champion.

McPeek was a big fan of Ellis Park and its 2-year-old program before it became fashionable. It continued to pay off for him, including Crazy Beautiful launching her career with a debut victory and winning the RUNHAPPY Juvenile Fillies last year. Crazy Beautiful this year won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks and Santa Anita's Grade 2 Summertime Oaks. McPeek's Grade 1 winners who raced at Ellis at age 2 include Daddys Lil Darling, Rosalind, Java's War, Pure Fun and Noble's Promise.

“It's still for us a really great launching ground for young horses,” he said. “I'm going to be running a lot of 2-year-olds down there. We look forward to those distance 2-year-old races, and I've got a list of other horses set to run down there. I think you'll see us run two or three a day.”

McPeek's horses racing at Ellis Park will ship in to race from Lexington, where he has horses at Keeneland as well as his farm and training center.

Of his 2-year-olds, he said, “This is a really good group. The horses came out of Florida in really good order and we've been waiting for more ground (longer races). We've had a couple of first-time starters win, and I'd like to think we could bring the filly that won (Behave Virginia, May 28 at Churchill Downs) back for the Ellis Park Debutante. That's a great race; Crazy Beautiful won it last year. I have a horse named Tiz the Bomb that's a really good colt.”

McPeek often runs his 2-year-olds in the mile races on turf – not because he thinks they're grass horses but because he buys and trains horses for longer races.

“I like running young horses longer,” he said. “I think they last a little bit better when you run them longer…. I like the distance, and teaching them to go two turns is always a little tricky. The sooner you do it, the better.”

Last year marked McPeek's first training title at Ellis Park, though he's won meet crowns elsewhere.

“I'd been second and third more than a few times,” he said. “… We've always run well there. I'd be curious where I'd be on the all-time list. I've got to be on it somewhere. Thirty-five years of racing at Ellis Park, I haven't missed a summer I don't think.”

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Long-Time Assistant Juan Cano Takes Over Late Mentor Angel Montano’s Stable

Juan Cano might not be a familiar name to Ellis Park racing enthusiasts, but he should be a familiar face.

The 31-date RUNHAPPY Meet at Ellis Park begins this Sunday and concludes Saturday Sept. 4. Racing is Friday, Saturday and Sundays, plus Thursday July 1. First post is 12:50 p.m. Central.

Cano, a married father of three (with a fourth on the way), was trainer Angel Montano Sr.'s longtime exercise rider and assistant. With health issues sidelining Montano in recent years, Cano largely ran the Louisville-based stable and was the one making the trip to Ellis Park to run its horses, including for six wins last summer. After Montano died Oct. 1 on his 80th birthday, Cano took over as trainer.

Outside the gaping absence of the Montano patriarch, Cano said not much has changed with the operation.

“I've been at Ellis Park for a lot of years. It's just a new name as the trainer,” he said at Churchill Downs. “I still have horses for Angel's kids. Joey comes out almost every day.”

The barn's trademark colors with the royal blue background and gold angel wings remain. Montano's seven sons and daughters gave Cano their dad's equipment and golf cart, saving the young trainer tens of thousands of dollars. The Montanos, their spouses and friends continue to help populate the barn, including the recent formation of Angel Wings LLC.

“Angel intended for him to take over,” said son Joe, who long has been involved in the stable and has helped Cano navigate the considerable paperwork, payroll and taxes any trainer encounters. “We've been a team together for 10 years anyways, so it just continued on.

“Juan has a couple of clients he picked up; people are interested in what he's doing. He works hard, takes good care of the horses and gives them a lot of attention. He's looking forward to a good summer.”

Cano has doubled the “six or seven” horses with which he started, including several he claimed for himself. The stable has three wins, a second and five thirds out of 19 starts at Churchill Downs' spring meet, with three days remaining. One of those wins came at 44-1 odds with Super Sol in a May 31 allowance race.

“I've had a good meet,” said Cano, who turns 36 on June 24. “Churchill Downs is a little tough to win a race. I got a little lucky this meet. I've got a couple of horses I think will do good at Ellis Park.”

Montano, a four-time meet leader at Ellis Park, paid forward his success in America with his generosity and mentorship of Cano and other young Hispanics at the track. Montano arrived from Mexico at age 17 on a Greyhound bus with a fourth-grade education, $100, six sandwiches and three words of English. He worked his way into becoming one of the very few thoroughbred trainers in Kentucky in the 1950s and '60s whose native language was Spanish, then stamped himself among the state's winningest stables in the 1970s. A trainer for 60 years, Montano was the dean of the Kentucky horsemen at the time of his death. His last wins came at Ellis Park last summer.

“With Juan, given the timing, I think Angel thought he was going to be one who could take the next step,” said Joe, a licensed assistant trainer whose full-time job is with Ford's Material Planning and Logistics team. “He turned a lot of responsibility over to Juan in the last year or so. They thought the same as far as caring and training horses, and Angel taught Juan a lot of things as far as galloping, working, how a horse feels and getting one ready to go long or short.

“Juan took a lot of what Angel taught him and incorporated it with what he learned working for other people. The family felt Juan was going to be the one to take over. It was easy for us to give him all of Angel's equipment. We knew Angel wanted him to have it. He was part of our family and still is.”

Cano grew up riding horses and cows in his native Guatemala before coming to Kentucky. He started out as a hotwalker and then groom for several trainers before pursuing a position as an exercise rider in Ocala, Fla. Upon returning to Kentucky, trainer Rick Hiles suggested Cano speak with Montano about a job. The trainer watched him gallop one horse and gave Cano a salaried job. It was the start of a 12-year relationship during which the elder Montano offered constant encouragement and assistance.

“He helped me a lot,” Cano said, adding in reference to getting the long hair off a horse's body, “One time they needed someone to clip a horse. Angel said, 'Juan, can you clip the horse?' I said, 'I don't know how, but I'll try.' I went out and bought clippers like you use for people. I clipped one. It took all day, and it looked like a cartoon. Wrong kind of clippers. Angel said, 'Juan! What are you doing?' And he went and bought me a pair of clippers for horses. After that, I clipped horses for all kinds of trainers.

“Angel gave me a chance to claim a horse. I claimed one for $5,000 and he won for $7,500. I got really lucky with my first horse. It was a three-horse field. The horse was claimed off me, but I made money off him and claimed another one. I used to always have one horse, then two. While working for Angel, I would groom and gallop my horses and do all my other work.”

In addition to the added training responsibilities, Cano continues to get on most, if not all, of his horses in morning training.

“It's not easy to run a stable, but I'm happy to do it,” he said. “All the Montano kids have helped me. Every time they come to the barn, they say, 'Keep doing what you're doing.' Miguel said, 'My daddy is happy for you.' I'm working hard. On race day, when I run a horse, I basically live with the horse all day in the barn.”

Horse owner Peter Patel, who claimed two fillies for Cano to train, said he likes knowing that the trainer sees and touches his horses every day.

“He's working hard, that's the main thing” Patel said. “I always loved small trainers. I like to help them out. He's doing wonderful, and I hope he does well. He's hands-on.”

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‘Things Are Going Our Way’: Red-Hot Combo Murrill, Hartman Headed To Ellis Park

The hottest trainer-jockey combination in Kentucky racing is heading to Ellis Park after Churchill Downs' spring meet ends June 26. Ellis Park opens Sunday June 27 and closes Sept. 4, with racing Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as well as Thursday July 1.

Trainer Chris Hartman has 13 wins out of 33 starts at Churchill through Thursday, good for a tie for fourth in the standings behind Brad Cox (17 wins), Brendan Walsh (16) and Mike Maker (15). However, Hartman's 39-percent win rate towers over his colleagues among those with at least 10 starts. Twelve of those winners have been ridden by Mitchell Murrill, who is having a breakout meet since moving his tack from Chicago to Kentucky last year. Murrill has prevailed on 16 of 76 mounts (along with 12 seconds and 10 thirds) to be tied for sixth in the Churchill riding standings, his 21-percent strike rate for winners matching the highest among the leaders.

“Things are going our way,” Murrill said on the Churchill Downs backstretch recently as he prepared to work a horse for Hartman. “We're having good luck together and trying to keep it rolling. I've had a few winners back to back (with other trainers) but not seven or eight in a row. It's definitely helpful to get my name out there and let people see me. Hopefully it will give me more opportunities to collect more business and get more and better rides.”

Hartman's hot streak includes five straight victories and winning seven of eight from June 3 through June 10.

“Blessed meet, that's all I can say. It's unbelievable,” Hartman said, adding in reference to his eight-win meet over the winter at Arkansas' Oaklawn Park, “We didn't win that many, but we had 16 seconds – and lot of them were by a nose. I thought we'd have a good meet here, but you don't really dream you're going to do this good.”

The 26-year-old Murrill describes riding for Hartman as “awesome.”

“He kind of lets me do my thing and he does his,” he said. “We've had a good relationship, and we always seem to be on the same page when it comes to race day. The day (June 5) I rode three and won three, that was a pretty impressive day.”

Already Murrill has blown past his previous high of six wins at a Churchill meet. Six also was his win total last summer at Ellis Park, his first time riding at the western Kentucky track.

“It was tough,” he recalled of his Ellis debut. “It was my first time there, first year in Kentucky. It didn't really go quite as well as we wanted. But we had a few winners and stuck it out, and it's starting to come back around and payoff. I like the track, the distance (1 1/8-mile main track). The surface was good. It was a fun new track to ride at.”

The flip side of winning a lot of races at a meet can be as that horses use up their race conditions, with victory becoming harder to achieve at the next level or in unrestricted races. However, Hartman sounds optimistic about Ellis Park, where he won 11 of 43 starts in 2018 as major client Joey Keith Davis captured the owner's title with seven victories.

“Ellis has a little different variety of horse there,” Hartman said. “But we've got horses we haven't even run yet at Churchill so hopefully they'll be strong there. And we've got 11 'babies,' so hopefully we'll get some of them rolling.”

Hartman first started using Murrill several years ago Arlington Park, which led to using the jockey in the winters in New Orleans, where the trainer also has a division.

“He just keeps getting better,” the trainer said of Murrill. “He's really been riding great here lately. That's another thing that helps a bunch. He's been riding really good, making winning decisions in a race. That's made the difference in a handful of these races. It's all a team effort. He's riding with absolutely confidence, putting horses where they're supposed to be.”

Murrill began riding full-time in 2014 on the Louisiana circuit before moving on to an Arlington Park-Fair Grounds base in 2015. The jockey quickly stamped himself among the top riders in Chicago before making the jump with agent Tim Hanisch to Kentucky for Churchill Downs' 2020 spring meet.

Yet, if it hadn't been for a high school pal, Murrill might be an electrician and very well would be spending his Saturdays in the fall not in the saddle but in Tuscaloosa watching his beloved Alabama Crimson Tide playing football. Growing up in Mobile, Ala., horse racing wasn't on his radar.

“I played soccer throughout high school and growing up,” Murrill said. “I was going to follow doing what my dad did, doing electrical work. A friend of mine in high school introduced me to some trainers, because he saw my size and said, 'Man, you'd be good at this.' I tried it and stuck it out, and now we're here.”

The old saying about getting back on the horse sums up Murrill's introduction to the sport. He started out getting on horses on farms for several trainers around Mobile.

“They just threw me on,” he said, adding of young horses, “I got on for the first time, I had a couple throw me off because they were babies. I kind of learned the hard way. It was wild at first. I had a concussion from one, when I got knocked out. So I was kind of iffy on it. But I got back on 'em and kept going at it.”

At the same time he began exercising racehorses, young Murrill also was riding bulls. He can testify that bulls are harder to stay on. But there is some cross-over skill between riding bulls and horses, he said.

“It definitely teaches you balance, for sure,” Murrill said, adding that if he fell off a horse, “he's not going to turn around looking for me, trying to kill me. So I stuck with the horses.”

Follow Mitchell Murrill on Twitter @MitchellMurrill. Follow Chris Hartman @CHartmanRacing.

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Ellis Park To Feature Record Purses, High-Def Broadcast, Full Fan Capacity

Ellis Park's 99th season will feature record purses, horse races shown in high-definition and arguably its deepest jockey roster ever. But what is Ellis Park General Manager Jeff Inman most fervently awaiting?

Crowds. Having people back at the 31-date RUNHAPPY Meet at Ellis Park session that begins Sunday June 27 and ends Saturday Sept. 5.

Because of the pandemic, Ellis last year was limited to socially-distanced reserved seating and no general admission. The 2021 meet will return to full capacity, with free general admission. Tickets for Clubhouse and Sky Theatre dining and grandstand boxes can be purchased at ellisparkracing.com/admissions or by calling 812-435-8918. Ellis runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays along with Thursday July 1. Post time for the first race each day is 12:50 p.m. CDT.

“We're looking forward to the roar of the crowd and getting back to what has made Ellis Park so popular for so many generations in the Tri-State region,” Inman said. “This is going to be the first year that we're broadcasting in high-def. We'll get our race signal out to more people. More people will see Ellis than ever. That's fantastic and can't be underestimated. Even so, what we're really excited about is getting fans back in the stands.”

Starting open day, those crowds again will be able to enjoy Sunday Funday Dollar Days, the weekly $2 16-ounce domestic draft beer and $1 hotdogs, peanuts and popcorn. That was among the promotions revealed at Thursday's annual Media Day at Ellis Park. Other promotions include Military and First Responders Weekend July 1-4, Teachers Appreciation Weekend July 9-11, Ladies Weekend (Fillies and Fun) July 16-18, Men's Weekend (Studs and Buds) Aug. 20-22 and Healthcare Workers Weekend Aug. 27-29. There will be live music every Saturday and a “Talk Derby to Me” Ellis Park Derby Party on Sunday Aug. 15.

Racing enthusiasts on-track and off-site will appreciate Ellis Park broadcasting its races in high definition for the entire meet. For the second year in a row, Ellis Park's stakes-laden programs on Aug. 7, 8 and 15 are expected to be shown on the racing network TVG's main channel. LTN Global, the media-technology company that last year worked with TVG to broadcast Ellis' big days, will oversee the entire meet's production.

Henderson's Bill Latta is among the racing fans with great anticipation for a gangbuster meet. Latta, the retired president of Field & Main Insurance, has attended the Ellis Park races every year for the past 65 seasons, since he was a tyke going to the track with his parents.

“I think they're going to have nice crowds,” Latta, one of the featured Media Day speakers, said before the event. “People are wanting to get out. There's a base of racing fans around this Tri-State area — southern Illinois, southern Indiana, Kentucky – who are starved for local racing.”

Ellis Park will open its gates at 8 a.m. CT on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with the Gardenia Room on the Clubhouse second floor serving breakfast. Henderson's J & B Bar-B-Cue will return with a stand underneath the grandstand on race days. Inman said that Ellis is working to get local food trucks to provide a variety of fare in the beer garden area near the paddock.

For the second year in a row, the meet will be sponsored by the Claiborne Farm stallion Runhappy, whose 2015 season as champion sprinter was kicked off by an allowance victory at Ellis. RUNHAPPY, whose name is capitalized when used in racing sponsorships, will also be the title sponsor of four stakes on Aug. 15: the the $200,000 RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Derby (which last year was captured by Grade 2 Toyota Blue Grass winner Art Collector), $125,000 RUNHAPPY Groupie Doll, $125,000 RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Juvenile and $125,000 RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Debutante. All the meet's 2-year-old races will be presented by RUNHAPPY.

Purses are scheduled to average an Ellis-record $350,000 a day, with maiden races going for $51,000 for Kentucky-bred horses. The 16-stakes schedule includes two new races for the highly successful Kentucky Downs Preview program, which has expanded from five to seven grass stakes while morphing from one day into a weekend, Aug. 7-8. Winners of Kentucky Downs Preview stakes, which carry purses of at least $100,000, receive a fees-paid berth in the corresponding stakes at Kentucky Downs' all-turf meet in early September.

Five dirt stakes take center stage on Aug. 15, the RUNHAPPY quartet and the $100,000 Audubon Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at seven-eighths of a mile.

The Ellis Park jockey colony will feature the bulk of Churchill Downs' elite roster. Among those returning will be 2020 Ellis champion rider Joe Talamo and past meet leaders Corey Lanerie, Rafael Bejarano, James Graham, Brian Hernandez Jr. and Jon Court, along with two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Julien Leparoux. Leading riders from Indiana Grand such as Marcelino Pedroza, DeShawn Parker and Fernando De La Cruz also plan to ride regularly at Ellis. Notable newcomers include David Cabrera, Drayden Van Dyke and Francisco Arrieta.

“I didn't think we could top last year's jockey lineup, but we are adding even more depth,” said Jeff Hall, Ellis Park's Director of Racing Operations. “Our racing just keeps getting better, too, with current standouts such as Sconsin, Midnight Bourbon and Crazy Beautiful — and of course, Art Collector — running here last summer. I can't wait to see what comes out of our 2021 'baby' races and stakes. It will be fun for our fans to be able to say, 'I saw them race at Ellis Park!'”

Ellis Park 2021 stakes schedule
Each includes $25,000 KTDF*

Sunday July 4 — $75,000 Ellis Park Turf, fillies & mares, 3 years old & up; 1 1/16 miles (turf); $60,000 Dada Park Dash Overnight Stakes, 3-year-olds, 5 1/2 furlongs (turf).

Saturday July 17 — $75,000 Good Lord, 3-year-olds & up, 6 1/2 furlongs.

Sunday July 18 — $60,000 Pea Patch Overnight Stakes, 3-year-old fillies, 5 1/2 furlongs (turf).

Saturday Aug. 7 — $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1 1/16 miles (turf); Kentucky Downs Preview Dueling Grounds Derby, 3-year-olds, 1 1/8 miles (turf); $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint, 3-year-olds & up, 5 1/2 furlongs (turf).

Sunday Aug. 8 — $125,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup, 3-year-olds & up, 1 1/4 miles (turf); Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Sprint, fillies & mares 3 years olds & up, 5 1/2 furlongs (turf); $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf, fillies & mares 3 years old & up, one mile (turf); $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Mint Million Mile, 3-year-olds & up, mile (turf).

Sunday Aug. 15 — $200,000 Ellis Park Derby, 3-year-olds, 1 1/8 miles; $125,000 Groupie Doll, fillies & mares, 3 years old and up, mile; $125,000 Ellis Park Juvenile, 2-year-olds, 7 furlongs; $125,000 Ellis Park Debutante, 2-year-old fillies, 7 furlongs; $100,000 Audubon Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 7 furlongs.

*Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund

Ellis Park condition book
EP condition book index

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