Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Monomoy Girl workout nears; tentative schedule in place
Monomoy Girl, poised to win her second Eclipse Award, this time as champion older mare, has settled into her winter quarters at Fair Grounds and is scheduled to have her first work since winning the Oct. 7 Breeders’ Cup Distaff sometime during December. She will launch her 2021 season, if all goes well, in the Bayakoa Stakes on Feb. 15 at Oaklawn Park.
The Bayakoa is a prep, trainer Brad Cox said, for Monomoy Girl’s major spring goal, the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap on April 17 at Oaklawn Park.
Monomoy Girl has finished first in 11 straight races, since she was second by a neck in the Golden Rod Stakes during fall 2017, although she was disqualified from first to second in the 2018 Cotillion at Parx Racing. She went on to win the BC Distaff that fall and was voted champion 3-year-old filly. She didn’t race for a year and a half, but came back this season to win all four starts, capped by an emphatic second BC Distaff triumph. Spendthrift Farm purchased Monomoy Girl at auction days after her Breeders’ Cup win.
Monomoy Girl forms just one segment of Cox’s strong Fair Grounds stable. Also bedded down in New Orleans right now are Essential Quality, the likely Eclipse Award winner as champion juvenile following victories in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and the BC Juvenile. Cox expects Essential Quality, like Monomoy Girl, to have his first post-Breeders’ Cup work before year’s end, but no plans have been made regarding his early 2021 racing schedule.
Cox, however, said he’s pointing high-level 2-year-old filly Travel Column to the Rachel Alexandra Stakes in February at Fair Grounds. Travel Column, who also is galloping steadily at Fair Grounds, rallied sharply to beat Fair Grounds-based Clairiere in the Grade 2 Golden Rod last month at Churchill.
Mandaloun, a Juddmonte Farms homebred colt by Into Mischief, worked an easy halfmile Dec. 12, his first Fair Grounds breeze, and is being pointed to the Jan. 16 Lecomte Stakes. Mandaloun won his debut over 6 1/2 furlongs at Keeneland and a first-level allowance race at seven furlongs Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs.
Maxfield returns Saturday
The 3-year-old colt Maxfield, unraced since May, will make his first start following the second long layoff of his brief career in the $75,000 Tenacious Stakes, the last of 13 races Saturday at Fair Grounds.
Maxfield, a Godolphin homebred by Street Sense, has won all three of his starts, capturing his career debut, a oneturn mile in autumn 2019 at Churchill, before romping in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. He was set to start as one of the favorites in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when an ankle injury forced him to be scratched days before the race. Maxfield dominated the good 3-year-olds Ny Traffic and Pneumatic in the Matt Winn Stakes in May at Churchill, his first post-injury start, but hurt himself again, fracturing a cannon bone during a workout at Keeneland.
Soundness might be all that stands between Maxfield and an exciting 4-year-old campaign during 2021, but trainer Brendan Walsh isn’t looking past the 1 1/16-mile Tenacious, where Maxfield figures heavily favored over six foes.
“It’ll be nice to get him out there and see where we’re at with him,” Walsh said. “The obvious races are all in mind for next year, but we’ll see where Saturday goes. He’s taught us not to be thinking too far ahead.”
The Tenacious is the last of six stakes on an excellent card populated only by maiden special weight, allowance, and stakes races. First post is an early noon Central.
Scherer recovering from stroke
Veteran trainer Merrill Scherer suffered a stroke at his home Sunday evening, his son, trainer Gary Scherer, said Wednesday.
The elder Scherer, who is 81, remained hospitalized as of Wednesday, his son said, but there was hope he could soon be moved from the intensive care unit into a private room.
“He’s getting a little better now,” Gary Scherer said. “He’s going to have a lot of rehab.”
Gary Scherer’s brother, trainer Richie Scherer, died in May 2017 from cancer. A race named in his honor is part of the Saturday racing program at Fair Grounds.
Purses raised 10 percent
Fair Grounds, which began its 2020-21 meeting on Thanksgiving, announced a 10 percent purse increase this past weekend that goes into effect Jan. 1.
Scott Jones, racing secretary at the track, said before the meet that Fair Grounds hoped to offer $50,000 maiden special weight purses this season, and the January bump raises such races from $47,000 to that level. Allowance races also got a $3,000 boost, while all other races, both open and Louisianabreds, will have their purses raised $2,000, according to a press release from the track.