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Monomoy Girl Splashes Home First In Bayakoa, Winning For 14th Time In 16 Starts

Two-time Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl registered her 14th victory in 16 career starts on Sunday at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., dispatching five filly and mare rivals on a sloppy track to win her seasonal debut by two lengths under regular rider Florent Geroux.

Trained by Brad Cox for Spendthrift Farm, My Racehorse and Madaket Stables, the 6-year-old mare by Tapizar out of Drumette, by Henny Hughes, took the overland route most of the 1 1/16 miles, stopping the teletimer in 1:45.92.

Our Super Freak edged Finite by 1 1/4 lengths for second place, with Chance to Shine fourth, Istan Council fifth and Another Broad trailing the field. Sent off the heavy favorite, Monomoy Girl paid $2.40 as a heavy favorite.

Steve Asmussen-trained Finite jumped out to an early lead under Ricardo Santana Jr., setting fractions of :24.60 for the opening quarter mile and :49.41 for the half. Our Super Freak applied pressure to Finite approaching the far turn after six furlongs in 1:14.13, with Monomoy Girl biding her time just behind the top pair and well off the rail.

Our Super Freak and David Cohen passed Finite, who fought back gamely to her inside, but Geroux and Monomoy Girl had them both measured, and the champion moved to the lead at the top of the stretch, sailing past the mile marker in 1:39.04 en route to her victory.

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Different Silks, Same Result: Dual Champion Monomoy Girl Takes Bayakoa in 6-Year-Old Debut

Monomoy Girl (Tapizar), who was last seen on the racetrack capping her second championship campaign with a win in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, returned to the races with an easy two-length victory in the GIII Bayakoa S. at Oaklawn Park Sunday. The 6-year-old mare, who has now won 14 races from 16 starts–10 in graded company–sold for $9.5 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale just a day after her second Distaff triumph last November and was making her first start for new owners Spendthrift Farm, My Racehorse.com Stable and Madaket Stables.

“It's kind of a relief to get it over with,” admitted Brad Cox, who continues to train the mare for her new connections. “She ran big. It means a lot. I'm very proud of what she accomplished today. Very, very pleased with what she was able to accomplish and bringing her to Hot Springs means a lot. It's a great racing town. The Saratoga of the South, I guess you could call it. There were a lot of fans here and I think they appreciate our team bringing her here.”

Sent off at 1-5 and breaking from the outside in a field of six, Monomoy Girl was floated to the middle of the track heading into the first turn as the jockeys steered clear of the rail of the rain-soaked track. She raced keenly while three wide and was always within striking distance of pacesetting Finite (Munnings), who took the field through a quarter in :24.60 and a half in :49.41. Niggled at by jockey Florent Geroux nearing the lane, it took the champ a few strides to get going over the sloppy surface, but once she kicked into gear, Monomoy Girl produced a powerful surge to take the lead with a furlong to run and sailed clear of the competition in a matter of strides before gliding under the wire unchallenged.

“It was a great trip,” Geroux said. “It set up great from the start with the outside post and short field. I let the horse in front of me do the dirty work and I just tucked in behind, on the outside, which was the smart thing today with the track condition. When I asked her turning for home, she gave me what she has all the time. She always delivers, so it's easy to appreciate a champion. I'm the luckiest jockey in the world right now.”

Named champion 3-year-old filly following a once-beaten season that culminated in a GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff conquest, the chestnut famously lost her entire 2019 season due to a variety of setbacks and returned no worse for the wear with a four-for-four 2020 campaign that again finished with a Distaff victory and an Eclipse statuette, this time for champion older female.

PEDIGREE NOTES:

Drumette, with the future champion in utero, sold for $75,000 at the 2014 Keeneland November sale. In foal to Mastery, she sold to Bridlewood Farm for $1.85 million at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton November sale. Superman Shaq, her colt by Shackleford, sold for $550,000 at last year's OBS June sale and was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following a maiden win at Del Mar last September. The mare has also been represented by 'TDN Rising Star' Mr. Monomoy (Palace Malice), who captured the 2020 GII Risen Star S.

Drumette produced a filly by Mastery in 2019 and a colt by Tapit last year.

Monomoy Girl's sire Tapizar (Tapit–Winning Call, by Deputy Minister), who was set to be shipped to Japan to stand stud at Yushun Stallion Station for the 2021 season, was euthanized after an accident in his stall last December.

Sunday, Oaklawn Park
BAYAKOA S.-GIII, $250,000, Oaklawn, 2-28, 4yo/up, f/m,
1 1/16m, 1:45.92, sy.
1–MONOMOY GIRL, 119, m, 6, by Tapizar
1st Dam: Drumette, by Henny Hughes
2nd Dam: Endless Parade, by Williamstown
3rd Dam: Mnemosyne, by Saratoga Six
($100,000 Ylg '16 KEESEP; $9,500,000 5yo '20 FTKNOV). O-My
Racehorse Stable, Spendthrift Farm LLC & Madaket Stables
LLC; B-FPF LLC & Highfield Ranch (KY); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Florent
Geroux. $150,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 3yo Filly, Ch. Older
Female & MGISW, 16-14-2-0, $4,576,818. *1/2 to Mr.
Monomoy (Palace Malice), GSW, $327,162.
2–Our Super Freak, 117, m, 5, Mineshaft–Thatcher, by Giant's
Causeway. ($5,000 Ylg '17 FTKOCT; $17,000 2yo '18 EASMAY;
$210,000 3yo '19 KEENOV). O-LBD Stable LLC & David Ingordo;
B-Gary & Mary West Stables Inc. (KY); T-Cherie DeVaux.
$50,000.
3–Finite, 119, f, 4, Munnings–Remit, by Tapit. ($200,000 2yo
'19 EASMAY). O-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC, Thomas J.
Reiman, William Dickson & Deborah A. Easter; B-Winchell
Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $25,000.
Margins: 2, 1 1/4, 3/4. Odds: 0.20, 15.80, 3.60.
Also Ran: Chance to Shine, Istan Council, Another Broad. 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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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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