Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Monomoy Girl in spotlight
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s been 28 months since Monomoy Girl helped take the training career of Brad Cox to the next level by winning the 2018 Kentucky Oaks. Since then, Cox has become even more entrenched among America’s elite trainers, and he’s not about to forget what she’s done for him.
“Ohhh yeah,” said Cox. “She’s special.”
On Kentucky Oaks Day 2020 – delayed some four months from its original date because of the coronavirus pandemic – Monomoy Girl will be front and center at fan-free Churchill Downs on Friday, when she makes her first start in a Grade 1 race since recovering from a couple of health issues that might have forced a less hardy soul into retirement. The 5-year-old mare will be heavily favored in the $500,000 La Troienne, which directly precedes the Oaks as the 11th of 13 races.
Monomoy Girl was assigned the outside post in the 35th La Troienne, a 1 1/16-mile race that drew eight fillies and mares but should have no more than seven starters, with Lady Kate likely to be diverted to the Derby City Distaff on Saturday. Florent Geroux will be aboard Monomoy Girl, just as he has been in all but the first of her 13 starts.
Cox noted that Monomoy Girl broke from the outside post in winning both the Oaks and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in 2018, “so that’s no issue at all.”
“It’s a good thing, actually,” he said.
Monomoy Girl has finished first in all but one start (she was beaten a neck in the 2017 Golden Rod and disqualified after crossing the wire first in the 2018 Cotillion) in a career that’s bidding for a Hall of Fame candidacy, depending partly on how she finishes out this season in the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland. She did not race last year at 4 owing to severe colic and a pulled gluteal muscle. Her two races to open her 5-yearold campaign resulted in openlengths victories, both from just off the pace, in a May 16 allowance at Churchill and the Grade 2 Ruffian on July 11 at Belmont Park.
“If she were to win a Grade 1 after all she’s been through, it would probably mean about as much as anything to me,” said Cox, who finished in the top five in stable earnings in 2018 and 2019 and enters this week second in 2020. “With that extensive layoff, it’d be almost unheard of, especially for a mare at this stage.”
Cox said race strategy will entail Geroux “playing it as it comes.”
“If there’s no other speed, we can go to the front, but if somebody inside her wants to go too quick, we can sit, too,” he said.
Perhaps the top rival for Monomoy Girl is Vexatious (post 2, Tyler Gaffalione), who will play the David role in looking to slay a Goliath for the second straight race. In her last start, the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 1 at Saratoga, Vexatious pulled a 9-1 upset of the highly accomplished Midnight Bisou.
“We’re going into this as an underdog, and rightly so,” said Jack Sisterson, who trains Vexatious for the Calumet Farm of Brad Kelley. “Brad [Cox] and his team have done an unbelievable job and built an incredible résumé with Monomoy Girl.”
Vexatious, by Giant’s Causeway, had gone winless in her nine prior starts before earning a 105 Beyer Speed Figure in the Personal Ensign. Three weeks beforehand, she earned a 100 when second by two lengths behind Monomoy Girl in the Ruffian.
“Our concern was making sure Vexatious came out of the Personal Ensign in great shape, which she did,” Sisterson said. “The Giant’s Causeway traits are really coming out in her now. She is showing us extreme gameness and will to run.”
Among the other La Troienne contenders are She’s a Julie (post 6, Ricardo Santana Jr.) and Horologist (post 1, John Velazquez), both from the barns of Hall of Fame trainers.
She’s a Julie has won just once in seven starts since capturing the 2019 La Troienne for Steve Asmussen, but it was a big one – the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on June 13 at Belmont. She’ll be trying to reverse course from her last start, when she faltered badly in the July 18 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth Park and finished more than 30 lengths behind winner Horologist, who earned a career-high 102 Beyer by winning in her first start in the care of Bill Mott.
Rounding out the La Troienne lineup are With Dignity, Saracosa, and Risky Mountain.
The La Troienne, named for the legendary broodmare who was foaled in 1926, has undergone several name changes since being inaugurated in 1986 as the Louisville Breeders’ Cup. Post time is 4:50 p.m. Eastern, with the Oaks following about an hour later.