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Monomoy Girl Works At Belmont In Advance Of July 11 Ruffian

Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables' multiple Grade 1-winnner Monomoy Girl breezed a half-mile in company in 49.30 seconds at 8:45 a.m. Saturday on a muddy Belmont Park main track under Hall of Fame rider Javier Castellano in preparation for the Grade 2, $150,000 Ruffian, a one-turn mile, at Belmont in Elmont, N.Y., on July 11.

Trained by Brad Cox, the 5-year-old Tapizar mare worked in company with multiple stakes winner A Bit of Both through splits of 12.3, 24.4 and out in 1:02.1.

Castellano said he enjoyed his cameo appearance aboard Monomoy Girl while filling in for regular pilot Florent Geroux, who will be at Belmont next weekend to ride the chestnut in the Ruffian.

“Today it was a very straightforward work, a half-mile from the half-mile pole with another horse inside. I was outside tracking the other horse,” said Castellano. “She handled the track well. Even at the beginning when we started galloping she was splashing nice and smooth in a good rhythm, good balance and good mind. These good types of horses, they do that.”

Monomoy Girl arrived at Belmont Park on Wednesday, alongside Grade 1 Runhappy Met Mile contender Warrior's Charge, to prepare for her first graded race since capturing the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff in November 2018.

That win capped an Eclipse Award-winning season for Monomoy Girl which included Grade 1 victories in the Ashland at Keeneland, Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, Acorn at Belmont Park and the Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga. The talented filly crossed the wire first – a neck in front of Midnight Bisou – in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx but was disqualified and placed second as the only blemish on her 3-year-old filly champion campaign.

Monomoy Girl, who missed the entirety of her 4-year-old season, was sent to WinStar Farm last spring after a mild case of colic and suffered an injury to her hamstring last fall when preparing for a potential comeback.

The champion chestnut returned to action on May 16 with a 2 3/4-length win in an optional-claiming tilt contested on a sloppy Churchill Downs main track, earning an 85 Beyer Speed Figure.

Bred in Kentucky by FPF LLC and Highfield Ranch, Monomoy Girl is out of the Henny Hughes mare Drumette. A $100,000 purchase at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, she boasts a record of 12-10-2-0 with purse earnings in excess of $3 million.

The Grade 2 Ruffian is the final graded stakes of the 25-day Belmont spring/summer meet. Closing weekend will also include the $80,000 River Memories, a 1 1/2-mile stamina test on the turf for older fillies and mares, on Closing Day Sunday, July 12, before live racing shifts to Saratoga Race Course for the 40-day summer meet which runs from Thursday, July 16 through Labor Day, September 7.

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Monomoy Girl Breezes Towards Ruffian

Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables’ Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) breezed a half-mile in company in an easy :49.30 over the Belmont main track Saturday morning as she completed her preparations for the July 11 GII Ruffian S. at Big Sandy.

Partnered with Javier Castellano, the 5-year-old worked in the company of her multiple stakes-winning stablemate A Bit of Both (Paynter) and was timed in splits of :12.30 and :24.40 before galloping out five-eighths of a mile in 1:02.10.

“Today it was a very straightforward work, a half-mile from the half-mile pole with another horse inside. I was outside tracking the other horse,” said Castellano, who was subbing for regular rider Florent Geroux. “She handled the track well. Even at the beginning when we started galloping, she was splashing nice and smooth in a good rhythm, good balance and good mind. These good types of horses, they do that.”

Geroux retains the call for the Ruffian.

A $100,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, Monomoy Girl won the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff to cap her championship season at three, her lone blemish coming when she was disqualified to second behind Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) in the GI Cotillion S. The chestnut missed her entire 4-year-old season, owing to a bout with colic and later a hamstring injury, but returned to action with a better-than-it-looked 2 3/4-length allowance victory going Churchill’s one-turn mile May 16. Connections bypassed a clash with Midnight Bisou in the GII Fleur de Lis S. last weekend in favor of the Ruffian.

The one-mile event, which carries purse money of $150,000, is the final graded stakes on the abbreviated Belmont stakes schedule. Monomoy Girl won the GI Acorn S. over the same course and trip in 2018.

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‘Better Now Than She’s Ever Been’: Champion Monomoy Girl Readies For Next Saturday’s Ruffian

Eclipse Award-winning mare Monomoy Girl will kick off her 2020 graded stakes action in attempt to make a case for Champion Older Mare in next Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 Ruffian on July 11 at Belmont.

The daughter of Tapizar arrived at Belmont Park on Wednesday alongside Grade 1 Runhappy Met Mile contender Warrior's Charge for trainer Brad Cox. Following a sensational 3-year-old campaign in 2018, which included five Grade 1 victories in the Ashland at Keeneland, Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, Acorn at Belmont Park, Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga and the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs, Monomoy Girl missed the entirety of her 4-year-old season.

She was sent to WinStar Farm last spring after a mild case of colic and suffered an injury to her hamstring last fall when preparing for a potential comeback.

Despite being forced to twice delay her long-anticipated return to action, Monomoy Girl put her winning ways on display last out, going a one-turn mile in a Churchill Downs allowance event that featured stakes winners Talk Veuve To Me and Fashion Faux Pas.

In her first start since defeating older fillies and mares in the 2018 Breeders' Cup Distaff, Monomoy Girl tracked the pace over a sloppy main track sitting a close fifth early on and received her cue from jockey Florent Geroux around the far turn before drawing off to a 2 ¾-length victory.

“She's doing awesome. It would help if we could have run a week or two earlier but it's a great spot to jump off her last effort,” said Liz Crow of BSW/Crow Bloodstock who manages Monomoy Girl on behalf of owners Monomoy Stable, Michael Dubb, the Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables.

Although the talented chestnut mare's career highlights have taken place in the two-turn Kentucky Oaks and Breeders' Cup Distaff, Crow said she can thrive going a one-turn mile. She owns victories going the distance in the Grade 1 Acorn in June 2018 as well as the Rags to Riches at Churchill Downs during her 2-year-old campaign.

Crow indicated a second victory in the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff on November 7 at Keeneland Race Course is the end goal.

“She's deadly going a one turn mile,” Crow said. “Her speed figures in the Acorn, Rags to Riches and her last start were great. But from here, she'll see a mile and a sixteenth to a mile and an eighth. The Personal Ensign is a little quick back after the Ruffian, but we do know that the Breeders' Cup is definitely the long term.”

Crow, who signed the ticket for Monomoy Girl when she went through the sales ring at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, was purchased for $100,000.

“It's amazing how much she's changed,” Crow said. “If you look at her you could mistake her for a colt. Her hips have widened, her shoulders have deepened, and looking her now as a 5-year-old she just doesn't look like the same horse. She's better now than she's ever been.”

Monomoy Girl has accumulated just over $3 million in lifetime earnings and has never finished worse than second in a dozen starts, 10 of which were victories.

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Personal Ensign Next for Midnight Bisou; BC Classic a Possibility

Coming off a smashing win in the GII Fleur de Lis S., Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) will ship to Saratoga Wednesday, where she will prepare for the Aug. 1 GI Personal Ensign S.

“After she gets settled in in Saratoga we will start gearing her up for her summer campaign with the expectation that she will run next in the Personal Ensign,” said Jeff Bloom, whose Bloom Racing Stable is the majority owner of the Eclipse-Award winning 5-year-old.

Bloom said the main goal after the Personal Ensign will be to get Midnight Bisou to the Breeders’ Cup, but which Breeders’ Cup race she competes in has yet to be decided. Bloom confirmed that the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic is a possibility.

“Our goal, ultimately, is to get her to the Breeders’ Cup and when I say Breeders’ Cup I am not being specific about a race,” Bloom said. “We will keep our options open. That lends itself to potentially going against the boys again. At the end of the day, the goal is the Breeders’ Cup. So far as which race, we will see how things play out over the course of the summer.”

Midnight Bisou, the 2019 champion older filly or mare, has had a brief but highly successful campaign so far this year. She was second behind Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) in the Saudi Cup and then came back to win the Fleur de Lis by 8 1/4 lengths. Bloom is confident his mare can handle just about anything.

“We know where she stands,” he said. “She is proven. She has shown her abilities and her level of success. She has answered those questions on the racetrack. Obviously, she has shown that she’s capable of running with the best in the world. She did it in the race in Saudi Arabia.”

As well as she ran in Saudi Arabia, the Fleur de Lis may have been her best ever performance.

“I wouldn’t say I was surprised, it was more that I was in awe of her,” Bloom said of the Fleur de Lis. “She was off for four months, she traveled across the world and went up against a quality group of fillies and then dominated them. I simply was awestruck watching it. Coming home, she was under a wrap, just under complete wraps. Mike Smith’s comments to me following the race was that as good as this filly has been, she has never felt any better than she did in this race. He said that he had so much left in the tank. It was pretty exciting.”

With Midnight Bisou pointing to the Personal Ensign and with Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) set to go in the July 11 GII Ruffian S. at Belmont, the two rivals remain on different paths. That doesn’t mean that Bloom wouldn’t relish the opportunity to square off with and beat Monomoy Girl.

“As a racing fan, how could you not want to see a match-up between those two fillies and watch them go head to head?” Bloom said. “It’s incredible that they were able to get Monomoy Girl back to the races off such an extended time period and to bring her back to a top level is great. It certainly lends itself to a potential for a match-up between Midnight Bisou and Monomoy Girl in the not too distant future. It would be a really good thing for horse racing and for fans to see them run again and see how it plays out.”

Bloom is also keeping an eye on Saudi Arabia. Maximum Security was trained at the time by Jason Servis, one of the trainers indicted for allegedly giving performance-enhancing drugs to his horses. Saudi racing authorities have said they are investigating the race and Servis and are withholding paying out the purse. If Maximum Security is disqualified Midnight Bisou would be declared the winner. Bloom said he has not been given any updates by the Saudis.

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