Hidden Scroll, Inject debut for Cox

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Hidden Scroll and Inject will make their first appearances for trainer Brad Cox when they start as leading contenders in Sunday’s co-featured allowance races at Oaklawn Park.

Hidden Scroll is in the seventh, a six-furlong allowance for 4-year-olds and up who have never won three races. Inject goes in the eighth, a firstlevel allowance for 3-year-old fillies at the same distance.

Hidden Scroll made a splash when he won his debut by 14 lengths with a Beyer Speed Figure of 104. The score came in January 2019 at Gulfstream Park. He was a double-digit winner at the same track again last March, in a first-level allowance over six furlongs. The 12 1/2-length victory was worth a Beyer of 102.

The races came for breeder and owner Juddmonte Farms and trainer Bill Mott, but Hidden Scroll was sold at auction at Keeneland in November. He brought $525,000 from new owner Marc Detampel to top one of the sessions of the multi-day sale in Lexington, Ky.

The race Sunday will not be the first time Hidden Scroll has run at Oaklawn. He was seventh in last year’s Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap. Hidden Scroll was beaten five lengths by winner Whitmore, who would go on to capture the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Hidden Scroll on Jan. 17 worked a bullet half-mile in 47.40 seconds at Oaklawn. Sunday’s race will be his first start since he was fifth in a second-level allowance at a mile on turf in August at Saratoga. The race has become a key one. The runner-up, Spirit Animal, came back in his next start to take a second-level allowance at Belmont Park with a Beyer of 94. In addition, the third-place finisher from the race, En Wye Cee, came back to take a second-level allowance at Saratoga, with a Beyer of 96.

Florent Geroux has the mount on Hidden Scroll from post 8 in the field of 12.

Bybee has recency on Hidden Scroll, as he exits a third-place finish in the Frank Whiteley Stakes on Nov. 28 at Laurel Park. Another top contender is Ancient Warrior, who comes off a first-level allowance sprint win at Churchill Downs in November.

Inject makes her first start for Cox following the retirement of her original trainer, Stanley Hough. She continues to race for Louis Wright.

Inject brings a world of pedigree into Sunday’s allowance. She is a daughter of Frosted out of the Grade 1-winning mare Appealing Zophie, who has gone on to be a broodmare of significance, producing both a Belmont Stakes winner in Tapwrit and a multiple Grade 2 winner in Ride a Comet.

Inject enters Sunday’s race off a runner-up finish in a first-level allowance Nov. 28 at Churchill. She will be first Lasix.

Abrogate will get good support in the field of seven for her six-length debut win Nov. 12 at Churchill Downs. Absolute Anna enters off a debut win Dec. 5 at Los Alamitos Race Course. Abrogate and Absolute Anna also will be first Lasix.