MyRacehorse To Offer Shares Of Champion Monomoy Girl; Kumin Re-Joins Ownership

When two-time Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl makes her 2021 debut this Sunday at Oaklawn in the G3 Bayakoa Stakes, both MyRacehorse and Sol Kumin will have been added the champion mare's ownership group, reports bloodhorse.com.

Spendthrift Farm bought the 6-year-old daughter of Tapizar for $9.5 million at the end of 2020, following her win in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, and decided to return the mare to trainer Brad Cox for a final racing season. Spendthrift has since leased out a portion of her racing rights to both MyRacehorse and Kumin.

MyRacehorse will control 51 percent of Monomoy Girl's racing rights, and expects to sell 10,200 shares at $46, each constituting a .005 share of purse money she earns in 2021.

Kumin was originally involved in Monomoy Girl's ownership under his Monomoy Stables partnership, and has now leased a share of her racing rights under the Madaket Stable banner.

“It was hard to let Monomoy Girl go at the end of the year, but it seemed like the right thing to do for our stable and partnership,” Kumin told bloodhorse.com. “Once I saw Spendthrift bought her, I asked if I could stay involved in some way and they were able to make it happen so we can complete the ride. We have been lucky with Spendthrift in the past, and they are great partners, so we are extremely appreciative they let us back.”

Read more at bloodhorse.com.

The post MyRacehorse To Offer Shares Of Champion Monomoy Girl; Kumin Re-Joins Ownership appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

‘This Is All He Thinks About’: Brad Cox’ Rise To Success Based On Developing Horses

Livia Frazar met Brad Cox in 2011 at Oaklawn Park when her future husband's stable was down to two claiming horses. Today, Cox trains around 150 horses, including the winners of a record-tying four Breeders' Cup races on the 2020 championship cards.

The 40-year-old Louisville, Ky., native is a leading contender to win the Eclipse Award as 2020's outstanding trainer and has Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Knicks Go as the likely favorite in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 23.

Reflecting back a decade, Frazar says she wouldn't have been surprised to know then where Cox is now.

“Because I knew he would keep going, no matter what,” said Frazar, a racetrack veterinarian based in Kentucky. “That even with the frustrations and the letdowns and stuff, we wouldn't let anything stop us.”

Rob Radcliffe met Cox 30 years ago, the young boys both living a couple of blocks from Churchill Downs. Both families had connections to the world-famous track and racing: Rob's dad, Bobby, was an exercise rider and Brad's dad, Jerry, a $2 bettor. The kids would tag along with Bobby to the backstretch and then sneak over to the races.

“Even at a young age, that's all he wanted to do was horses,” Radcliffe said. “He'd come over to my house and look at the win pictures for hours on end. That's all he wanted to do – horses, horses, horses. When we were kids, we weren't old enough to gamble. When they finally put those (self-bet) machines in where you could get a voucher, we thought that was heaven.

“But I always remember Brad more so handicapping after the fact. After the races had run, he'd take the Racing Form home – we'd pick them up out of the garbage – and go study it. It's not a shock to me that he's where he's at. I know how hard it is as a trainer to make it; the odds of that happening are crazy. But he was determined, even when we were little kids. You knew he was going to train horses.”

The 1 1/8-mile Pegasus could kick off a potentially huge week for the trainer. The Eclipse Awards for North American racing's champions will be announced in a virtual ceremony Jan. 28. No matter what happens for Eclipse trainer — Bob Baffert is the primary competition — Cox is virtually assured of doubling to his arsenal of equine champions with Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) winner Monomoy Girl adding the older filly and mare title to her 3-year-old filly crown in 2018 and unbeaten Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) victor Essential Quality as male 2-year-old champ. Cox's other champions are 2019 Breeders' Cup winners Covfefe (3-year-old filly, female sprinter) and British Idiom (2-year-old filly).

“He works as hard as any trainer I've been around,” Sol Kumin, a co-owner of Monomoy Girl, said at the Breeders' Cup. “It's a family affair with him, with his two sons in the barn all the time. They're not doing much else, they're watching races, when they don't have horses running. They're thinking about it all the time. He's got a great team and a great staff in really every location. And he's not afraid to give you bad news. If you buy a horse that's not good, he'll tell you. Doesn't matter what you paid. He gives it to you straight and he tries to put them in good places.”

Cox had been training for a decade when he won his first graded stakes on June 28, 2014 with Carve in Prairie Meadows' Cornhusker (G3). The ascent since then has been breathtaking, the past three years particularly stunning.

After winning 151 races in 2016, Cox's horses have won more than 200 races every year. Through Sunday, the stable had won 1,481 races and more than $78 million in purses with a career win percentage of 25.

Since earning his first Grade 1 in Keeneland's 2018 Ashland Stakes (G1) with Monomoy Girl, he now has won a total of 19. Monomoy Girl also provided Cox with his first victory in a $1 million race in the Kentucky Oaks (G1), his first of what now are seven Breeders' Cup wins in the 2018 Distaff and his first champion. Knicks Go and Monomoy Girl on Nov. 7, along with Godolphin's Essential Quality in the Juvenile and Aunt Pearl in the Juvenile Fillies (G1) Turf on Nov. 6, enabled Cox to match Richard Mandella's record Breeders' Cup quartet in 2003. The trainer in just three years is tied with Steve Asmussen for 10th all-time for Breeders' Cup victories, ahead of Hall of Fame trainers such as Neil Drysdale and the late Bobby Frankel.

Cox's horses earned a personal-best $18.98 million in purses for 2020, second only to Asmussen. His horses won a career-best 30 graded stakes, his seven Grade 1 races including his second Kentucky Oaks with Shedaresthedevil.

Things have been going so well that Monomoy Girl sold the day after the Breeders' Cup at Fasig-Tipton for $9.5 million to Spendthrift Farm, which promptly sent her back to Cox to race at age 6.

“It's been a good run,” Cox said in his understated way, adding with a laugh, “Honestly, when you look at it like Carve was 5 1/2 years ago, well, wow, it seems like many moons ago. Great horses, great staff, great clientele — that's basically what it all comes down to. Just very fortunate and blessed to have good horses.”

The stable has gained horses for some of the world's biggest owners, such as Godolphin and Juddmonte Farms, and prominent operations such as LNJ Foxwoods. The Korea Racing Authority sent him Knicks Go, a Grade 1 winner as a 2-year-old, after the colt's 3-year-old season. But it certainly didn't start out that way.

“I've never been one to go out and recruit or be a big 'Let's go to dinner' and try to get in other people's barns,” Cox said of attracting owners. “That's not me. I just try to focus on the horses we have and try to develop them. I think the first seven individual graded-stakes winners we had were either horses who had run for a 'tag' or had been claimed. We had to develop them or improve them, whether it was surface change or something along the way that got them in good form. That's how it really got kicked off, our ability to show we could win at the graded-stakes level. I think that's when the larger outfits, people with homebreds with nice pedigrees, start calling you and you get horses out of the sale as well.”

Bloodstock agent Liz Crow, who works closely with Cox as the racing manager for many of her clients, met the trainer in 2014 when the Ten Strike Racing partnership wanted her to help select horses at the OBS March sale.

“They were going to send them to Brad Cox,” Crow recalled, “and I said, 'Who's Brad Cox?' They said, 'It's a guy we met and we think he's an up-and-coming trainer and he only has 15 horses right now. But when we talked to him, he was really smart.' So I met him at the OBS sale and was immediately impressed with him. He just has this amazing memory and obvious passion for the game that was apparent the second I met him.”

Crow in turn brought clients such as Kumin and Stuart Grant into the Cox stable, leading to horses such as Monomoy Girl and Aunt Pearl.

“I think of Brad as a fast rise to fame, because I didn't know him the first 10 years he trained,” Crow said. “I think his rise from 2014 to now is really impressive, how he's become one of the best trainers in the country. To win four Breeders' Cup races and to think only six years ago he had only 20 horses and hadn't won a graded race and that Monomoy Girl was his first Grade 1 winner, it's one of those amazing stories.

“What we were sending him at first were problem horses, who had issues here and there or needed extra attention. He was getting them to win races.”

Monomoy Girl was in the first crop of yearlings Crow purchased for Kumin “and Sol said, 'Let's send a couple of these to Brad,'” she said. “We wanted to send him something nice, almost reward Brad for doing all this work with horses who had issues.”

To Crow, one of Cox's great attributes is his ability to train any kind of horse: turf, dirt, sprint, route, young, older.

“He's obsessed with it, there's no way around it,” she said. “This is all he thinks about, all he does. When we won the Oaks with Monomoy, he didn't go out to dinner with us that night. He said he had horses to breeze in the morning, so he went home.”

Cox concedes he should make an effort to get away from business from time to time.

“It does cross my mind sometimes to 'Hey, just shut it off and relax a little bit,'” Cox said. “The next thing you know, I'm on my iPad looking up a chart or a horse.”

Even when he's in bed and has finally shut his eyes, the wheels apparently keep turning.

“He talks about entering races and stuff in his sleep,” Frazar said. “It's so hilarious. He'll be like, 'Oh, we entered that one in a Grade 3.'”

She says Cox is able to enjoy his successes, “but he doesn't feel like 'oh, I'm done.' He always feels like, 'OK, what are we going to do next?'”

Cox worked for trainers Burk Kessinger and Jimmy Baker before spending five years as an assistant to Dallas Stewart. He didn't have a big owner jump-starting his career when opening his own stable 16 years ago. Twice Cox had to rebuild after parting ways with Midwest Thoroughbreds, the second time particularly proving a blessing in disguise.

He resolved to add a horse a week, with much of the expansion through the claim box. Less than two years later, in 2014, Cox's public stable had ballooned to more than 40 horses. He now has one of the largest stables in the country, spread among five tracks.

Cox no longer claims horses; he doesn't have the time or really the space. His stalls are well-populated at Gulfstream Park's Palm Meadows training center, where he has 22 horses for the first time, along with horses at Fair Grounds, Oaklawn Park, Turfway and a winterized barn at Keeneland. Assistant trainers Jorje Abrego, Cathy Riccio, Ricky Gianni, Tessa Bisha and Dustin Dugas have been with him for at least several years each, and he developed two more assistants/barn foremen in his sons from his first marriage, Blake and Bryce. (Frazar and Cox also have a young son, Brodie.)

Cox is open about his major goals of winning the Kentucky Derby and trainer Eclipse Award and being voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Two of those ambitions could happen this year; he'd be eligible for the Hall of Fame starting in 2029 after training for 25 years.

Jockey Florent Geroux, who rides Monomoy Girl and Aunt Pearl, is betting on Cox.

“I know what he's capable of doing,” he said after the Breeders' Cup. “I know his dedication and his staff. It's a team effort. And when you have that team effort and some luck, you do very big things. You just have to be lucky and have the right horses. But now, after this Breeders' Cup, who knows what kind of horses he's going to have in his stable next year?”

The post ‘This Is All He Thinks About’: Brad Cox’ Rise To Success Based On Developing Horses appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

GSW Air Strike to Stand in Ohio

Grade II winner Air Strike (Street Sense–Omnitap, by Tapit) has been acquired by Daryl and Sally Duncan and will enter stud at their Duncan Farms in Warsaw, Ohio in 2021.

Raced in partnership by Sol Kumin’s Madakat Stables, Slam Dunk Racing and Michael Nentwig, Air Strike won the GII Triple Bend S. at Santa Anita as a 4-year-old in 2019. Also fourth in last year’s GI Bing Crosby S. and GI Forego S., the bay retired with career earnings of $338,810.

“We were looking to add a true dirt-sprint pedigree with some depth on the dam side and we found it in Air Strike,” said Daryl Duncan.

Air Strike joins Duncan Farms’ other graded stakes-winning stallions, Corfu (Malibu Moon) and Fort Larned (E Dubai). He will stand his first season for $2,000 Live Foal.

The post GSW Air Strike to Stand in Ohio appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Mind Control Pointing Toward Cigar Mile; Sisterson May Run Pair

Multiple Grade 1-winner Mind Control, trained by Gregg Sacco for Steve Brunetti's Red Oak Stable and Sol Kumin's Madaket Stables, posted a five-eighths work in 1:01.85 Sunday on the Belmont Park dirt training track in preparation for the Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile for 3-year-olds and up on December 5 at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.

The Cigar Mile Day card also includes a pair of Grade 2, $150,000 nine-furlong events for juveniles in the Remsen and its filly counterpart, the Demoiselle, as well as the Grade 3, $100,000 Go for Wand Handicap for fillies and mares at one mile.

Sacco said Mind Control, a 4-year-old son of 2012 Cigar Mile champ Stay Thirsty, is likely to enter the Cigar Mile, although the six-furlong Grade 3, $100,000 Fall Highweight Handicap on November 29 at the Big A remains under consideration.

“He worked well. He went five-eighths in 1:01 and change and out in 1:15. The track was a little heavy this morning,” said Sacco. “I'll talk it over with my brother [racing manager Rick Sacco], Steve Brunetti and Sol Kumin, but it looks like we're going to point him to the Cigar Mile.”

The talented colt captured the seven-furlong Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga Race Course as a juvenile and added the seven-furlong Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens to his ledger last August at the Spa.

A four-time winner at Aqueduct, Mind Control captured the one-mile Jerome here in his first sophomore start and ran second to Haikal at one mile in the 2019 Grade 3 Gotham ahead of a score in the seven-furlong Grade 3 Bay Shore. He continued his good form at Ozone Park earlier this year with wins in the Grade 3 Toboggan in January and Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap in March.

After running off-the-board on a sloppy track in the Grade 1 Runhappy Carter Handicap in June at Belmont, Mind Control returned to form with a strong third in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga. His chances in the Grade 1 Forego presented by America's Best Racing at Saratoga were hampered by a sloppy track, resulting in an eighth-place finish.

“He's been a bit of a victim of circumstance this year,” said Sacco. “He started out the year great, but caught the slop in the Carter and then he ran well on the fast track in the Vanderbilt before catching slop again in the Forego. He really can't hold up in the slop.”

Mind Control found class relief in the Mr. Prospector on September 12 at Monmouth Park but was checked down the backstretch en route to a third-place finish. Last out, in the Lafayette at Keeneland, Mind Control was in range to strike when a horse fell in front of him at the quarter pole causing Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez to take up his mount.

Sacco said he is hopeful Mind Control can return to winning form at Aqueduct against an expected field that includes top contenders Performer and Firenze Fire.

“He's won at a mile early in his 3-year-old career in the Jerome and he was a good second in the Gotham,” said Sacco. “We always thought between seven-eighths and a mile was his best distance. Three-quarters is a little short for him even though he's won at that distance and ran a dynamite race in the Vanderbilt at Saratoga.

“He loves Aqueduct and he came out of the Kentucky race well,” added Sacco. “We know it's going to be a tough heat. Performer is a hell of a horse and there's a few other really nice horses in there.”

Sisterson may start pair in Cigar
Trainer Jack Sisterson saddled his first Grade 1-winner this summer with Vexatious in the Personal Ensign at Saratoga and said he is hoping to double up when he sends out Calumet Farm's True Timber and Bon Raison in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile.

“We'll definitely send True Timber and there's a good chance we'll send Bon Raison for the Cigar Mile as well,” said Sisterson.

True Timber, a 6-year-old son of Mineshaft, will be making his third Cigar Mile appearance following a close second to Patternrecognition in 2018 and a third a year ago in an event won by Maximum Security.

A veteran of 28 career starts, True Timber boasts a record of 28-4-5-9 with purse earnings in excess of $1 million. He joined the Sisterson barn earlier this season following the retirement of former trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

In four starts with Sisterson, True Timber has posted two thirds and a closing second last out in the Lafayette at Keeneland.

“He's a lovely horse and the way he tries on the day he really deserves to win a big race. He's definitely got the talent to do it,” said Sisterson. “He's very workmanlike in the morning, so I've learned to let him just put his feet where he wants to put them and keep him happy.”

His lone off-the-board effort for Sisterson was a fourth in the Grade 2 Vosburgh Invitational in September at Belmont when leaving from the inside post in a race won by Cigar Mile-rival Firenze Fire.

“He didn't like being stuck down on the rail at Belmont two races back [in the Vosburgh], and that's just him. Put a line through that race and he's run some competitive races with us,” said Sisterson. “He seems to be peaking into his best possible performance to date with us. He has one more breeze here next week and if all goes to plan, I definitely expect him to run as good in there as he has done in the past. He's probably looking forward to getting up there.”

Bon Raison, a 5-year-old Raison d'Etat horse, is a Calumet homebred, who returned to the fold in July when claimed for $80,000 from an optional-claiming sprint at Saratoga.

A veteran of 44 career starts, Bon Raison owns a record of 11-4-7 with purse earnings of $674,534. He captured the 6 ½-furlong Peeping Tom at Aqueduct as part of a marathon 21-race campaign last year that also included a score in the six-furlong Tale of the Cat at Saratoga. Earlier this year, Bon Raison picked up graded black type when third to Mind Control in the Grade 3 Tom Fool at the Big A.

“He's a homebred and has a special place in Calumet's heart,” said Sisterson. “If you really diagnose his form and numbers, he's got some big numbers to go back to. He's run quite a few times and at different distances and he was able to withstand all of that. It goes to show the will to run he has.”

In his second start for Sisterson, Bon Raison tried the Grade 3 Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs in September but failed to fire. He came back and won a hard-fought nose score in an optional-claiming sprint on October 16 on the Keeneland main track.

“We took a shot at Kentucky Downs and some horses take to that course and some don't,” said Sisterson. “He came out of that race fine and trained forwardly into the nice little allowance race at Keeneland which he somehow ended up winning. He just got up. It just goes to show he still has the will to run.”

Last out, Bon Raison was a non-threatening tenth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint on November 7 at Keeneland under Adam Beschizza. He exited that effort to work a half-mile in 49.40 Saturday on the Keeneland dirt.

“If you look closely at the Breeders' Cup Sprint, Adam Beschizza got off him and said, 'Jack, you have to watch the replay, I didn't even touch him with the whip. I had nowhere to run,'” said Sisterson. “So, he didn't have a tough race coming out of the Breeders' Cup Sprint and he worked great yesterday.”

Sisterson said the Calumet pair have complimentary running styles, with True Timber likely to be prominently placed.

“One will be forwardly placed and one will be coming from off the pace and it wouldn't shock me if either of them won it in two weeks' time,” said Sisterson. “He [True Timber] has a naturally high cruising speed and if you can get him into a good rhythm, I think he can carry that over a distance of ground.”

Sisterson said Kendrick Carmouche will have the call aboard True Timber, while Jorge Vargas, Jr. will pilot Bon Raison.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, and the best way to bet every race of the 18-day fall meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

Early look at the Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile on December 5, 2020
Probable: Bon Raison (Jack Sisterson), Firenze Fire (Kelly Breen), King Guillermo (Juan Carolos Avila), Mr. Buff (John Kimmel), Mind Control (Gregg Sacco), Performer (Shug McGaughey), True Timber (Jack Sisterson)

Possible: Majestic Dunhill (George Weaver)

The post Mind Control Pointing Toward Cigar Mile; Sisterson May Run Pair appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights