Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Monomoy Girl all business
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Monomoy Girl is scheduled to breeze Sunday morning at Churchill Downs with regular rider Florent Geroux aboard in the star filly’s final prerace work heading into the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion at Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia.
“Her gallops this week have been phenomenal coming out of the nice, stiff breeze she had last Sunday,” trainer Brad Cox said early Friday. “She’s got her game face on.”
Monomoy Girl, a winner in all but one of her nine career starts and the No. 4-ranked horse in the latest National Thoroughbred Racing Association poll, is using the Cotillion as her final prep toward the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs. She is one of a handful of horses who will be flown from here Wednesday to Parx, which has its biggest day of the year set for next Saturday, Sept. 22, with the Cotillion, the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby, and three other stakes.
Amid all the frenetic travel required of him and his fellow trainers this week with the ongoing Keeneland yearling sale, Cox has been busy sorting out plans for the other stakes runners in his burgeoning stable, which passed the $10 million earnings mark for 2018 when Arklow captured the Kentucky Turf Cup on Sept. 8 at Kentucky Downs.
“We’re still undecided about whether to run Arklow in the Breeders’ Cup” Turf, he said. “He did come out of the race in good shape.”
As for a couple of others, Cox said Long On Value is more likely to run in the Oct. 13 Nearctic at Woodbine than the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, and Kelly’s Humor is being pointed to the Oct. 20 Raven Run at Keeneland.
Meanwhile, Cox has unveiled numerous promising 2-yearolds this summer, most recently Zalia, an easy debut winner Thursday at Kentucky Downs. The Scat Daddy filly probably goes next in the Oct. 10 Jessamine at Keeneland, Cox said.
As for Sunday at Churchill, Cox has four scheduled starters, including Covfefe (race 7) and Unholy Alliance (race 8) in back-to-back divisions of a split maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies going six furlongs.
“I like them both a lot,” he said. “Unholy Alliance, she’s done everything right, and Covfefe is a really fast filly. We’re expecting big things from them.”
Covfefe, owned by LNJ Foxwoods, is named for the bumbling tweet made famous by President Trump in May 2017. The Into Mischief filly is not to be confused with Cofveve, a 3-year-old colt who last raced for a $7,500 claiming tag for another Churchill-based trainer, Murat Sancal.
Solid Sunday card
Besides the two maiden specials, a pair of main-track allowances will highlight an excellent 10-race Sunday card that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern.
Race 3 is a $60,000, secondlevel sprint that drew just six fillies and mares, with Cox perhaps having the horse to beat in Maybe Wicked.
Race 9 is a $58,000, first-level route that drew a well-matched field of nine 3-year-olds led by Fort Peck, St. Augustine, and Arrival.
After Sunday, Churchill goes dark before live action resumes with an eight-race twilight Thursday card (post, 5 p.m.).
Mind Your Biscuits arrives
Mind Your Biscuits, the alltime leading New York-bred with earnings of more than $4.1 million, arrived before dawn Thursday at Churchill following an overnight van ride from New York and has settled in well, trainer Chad Summers said early Friday.
“We took him to the track for an easy jog this morning, let him get acclimated,” Summers said.
Mind Your Biscuits will breeze Friday, Sept. 21, in preparation for the Lukas Classic, a 1 1/8-mile race that anchors a Sept. 29 Downs After Dark card that will include three other stakes. Summers reiterated that the 5-year-old horse’s performance will help determine which of three Breeders’ Cup races will be chosen for him – the Classic, Dirt Mile, or Sprint.
Massive mutuel at Ky. Downs
Officials at Equibase have confirmed that the biggest win mutuel of 2018 in North America was recorded Wednesday at Kentucky Downs when Country Chick returned $248.60 for $2 in winning the second race. Ridden by Carlos Esquilin for 73-year-old owner-trainer Floyd Cobb, Country Chick captured the $129,607 allowance by a stunningly easy three lengths.
The win mutuel also is the highest ever at Kentucky Downs, where racing has been conducted since 1998. The high payoff was $161 for Bag of Stars in 2001.
Beschizza serving three days
Adam Beschizza begins a three-day suspension Sunday for his role in the Sept. 8 Kentucky Downs spill that resulted in fellow jockey Kendrick Carmouche being injured. Beschizza also will be off Thursday and Friday before returning Saturday.
Carmouche, based in New York, is expected to be out at least four months with a fractured right femur. His ride on Chattel, who had to be euthanized because of his injuries, was his first ever at Kentucky Downs.
◗ Horses who had made their previous starts in New York produced the best results at the five-day Kentucky Downs meet, as evidenced by these statistics – Saratoga, 15 for 79 (19 percent); Belmont, 3 for 8 (38 percent); Ellis, 11 for 147 (7 percent); Indiana Grand, 3 for 54 (6 percent); Arlington, 0 for 54.