Six K’s Training & Sales Relocates

Florida's Six K's Training & Sales, owned and operated by Scott Kintz and family, is relocating from Midwest Thoroughbreds in Anthony to Woodford Thoroughbreds in Reddick by the end of the month. Kintz used to work for Woodford, in addition to Taylor Made Farm and Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm, prior to starting his own training and sales company in 2019.

“I couldn't be happier to be moving back home,” said Kintz. “I came to Florida to work for Woodford and now we're taking Six K's back there. My son Nick, who is my assistant, grew up there and worked on the farm while in high school, so we both know the farm very well. We are grateful that Mr Sykes has allowed us the opportunity to come to what I feel is the best farm in Florida and grow our business. I want to thank Mr. and Mrs. Papiese and the entire staff at Midwest for our time there.”

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Florent Geroux ‘Very Excited’ To Be Based At Oaklawn For 2021 Meet

Florent Geroux's second stint as a riding regular at Oaklawn figures to go better than his first. Much better.

Geroux was fresh off his first career riding title at Hawthorne when he made his Oaklawn debut in 2012, presumably as the go-to rider for Chicago-based powerhouse Midwest Thoroughbreds (Richard and Karen Papiese). Midwest was Oaklawn's leading owner in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It teased Dan Lasater's then-single-season Oaklawn record (48 victories) in 2012 before finishing with 42.

Geroux, trainer Roger Brueggemann and Midwest had teamed to sweep the titles at the 2011 Hawthorne fall meet. But with Brueggemann remaining in the Chicago area, Geroux rode only four horses for the far-reaching, multi-trainer Midwest Thoroughbreds operation during the 2012 Oaklawn meeting and quietly left Hot Springs after going winless with only seven mounts.

“We just decided to go back to Chicago because we didn't have the business we were promised to have,” Geroux said during training hours Wednesday morning at Oaklawn. “With Midwest Thoroughbreds, it was back and forth. Sometimes you get hired and sometimes you stay on the bench. It's always been like that. But through my career, I can't complain. They just helped me a lot and really helped my career to go to another level. It was mainly because of him (Brueggemann), winning a lot of races on the Chicago circuit and winning the Breeders' Cup with Work All Week and the Arlington Million with The Pizza Man.”

Geroux did make an important business contact during his brief stint at the 2012 Oaklawn meeting, riding four horses for Brad Cox, then one of Midwest's trainers employed in Hot Springs, and billed a career “up and comer.”

“When I came here, it was just different trainers,” Geroux said. “The only one who helped me was Brad.”

Almost a decade later, Geroux has returned to Oaklawn as a regular, more specifically as the go-to rider for Cox, a finalist for an Eclipse Award as the country's outstanding trainer in 2020.

Normally, Geroux, 34, winters at Fair Grounds, where he has recorded 506 victories since 2013. But Oaklawn's lucrative purse structure (roughly $600,000 daily projection) and Cox's top-shelf barn had Geroux getting on horses at Oaklawn on a crisp, cloudy Wednesday morning.

“Brad and I, we talked and we decided where was best for me to go and that was mainly here,” said Geroux, whose 36 victories ranked fourth in this season's Fair Grounds standings through Tuesday. “Of course, it was mainly because of him. At the Fair Grounds, I have a lot of business, too. I have more business there because people expect me to ride there. Here, it's different, but I'm hoping to have a good meet. With the help of Brad, I think it's going to be very beneficial.”

In contrast to 2012, Geroux is named on 12 horses during the first two days of racing (Friday and Saturday), including seven for Cox. Geroux and Cox have teamed for 285 victories since 2014, a collaboration highlighted by Eclipse Award winner and two-time Breeders' Cup Distaff champion Monomoy Girl.

“We work well together,” said Cox, Oaklawn's third-leading trainer in 2020 and a dominant figure the last few years at Fair Grounds. “He's done a fantastic job for us for years now. Just thought we would start at Fair Grounds and see how it goes. It's going well, but I think with the purse money and the day-to-day racing being so good at Oaklawn, it probably just makes more sense for him to be at Oaklawn, as opposed to the Fair Grounds, once it starts.”

Among Geroux's first scheduled mounts for Cox is Caddo River in Friday's $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds. Geroux said he's anxious to reunite with Monomoy Girl, who is scheduled to make her 2021 debut in the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares Feb. 15 at Oaklawn. The Bayakoa is a major local prep for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17.

“Very excited,” Geroux said. “It's one of the main reasons, too, I'm here. Because of the COVID situation, you don't know how you're going to be able to travel back and forth. She's supposed to run twice, once in the Bayakoa and once in the Apple Blossom. That's one of the main reasons why I'm here.”

Geroux has more than 1,700 victories and $108 million in purse earnings in his career. In addition to Monomoy Girl, Geroux was the regular rider of 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner. Geroux also won the 2014 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) aboard Work All Week and the 2015 Arlington Million (G1) aboard The Pizza Man for Brueggemann and Midwest Thoroughbreds. Work All Week, the country's champion male sprinter of 2014, and Gun Runner were both Oaklawn stakes winners.

Geroux, who was born in France, recorded his first United States victory in 2008. He has 11 career Oaklawn victories.

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COVID Claims The Life Of Breeders’ Cup, Arlington Million-Winning Trainer Roger Brueggemann

Roger Brueggemann, the Illinois-based trainer of Breeders' Cup winner Work All Week and Arlington Million winner The Pizza Man, passed away on Tuesday after hospitalization due to COVID-19, reports bloodhorse.com.

The 75-year old veteran horseman saddled a total of 1,248 winners since earning his license in 1988. He was a mechanic for 30 years prior to that, but according to longtime owner Midwest Thoroughbreds' website, Brueggemann ended that career when a horse rolled over on him and broke his hip.

Brueggemann earned his first training title at Hawthorne in 2007, and began working for Midwest Thoroughbreds in 2010. Both Work All Week, winner of the 2014 Breeders' Cup Sprint, and 2015 Arlington Million winner The Pizza Man are owned by Midwest. The Pizza Man's marquee victory made him the first Illinois-bred to win the state's premier race.

“He was so important in jump-starting (jockey) Florent (Geroux)'s career, and that win in Arlington Million—since I grew up in Chicago—was as special as any win,” Geroux's agent Doug Bredar told bloodhorse.com. “To see a small-time guy have the opportunity to train a Breeders' Cup winner and then an Arlington Million winner was nothing short of amazing. Now that's he gone, it breaks my heart.”

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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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