Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
DISTAFF LEGACY
MONOMOY GIRL THE LATEST FEMALE SENSATION TO PERFORM OVER ARKANSAS TRACK,
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – From Azeri to Zenyatta, some of the most fabulous fillies and mares in history have come to Oaklawn Park.
Another chapter in the distaff division will be written Sunday, when two-time champion Monomoy Girl launches her 6-year-old season in the track’s Grade 3, $250,000 Bayakoa.
The 1 1/16-mile race – named for the Hall of Fame mare who won the 1989 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn – serves as a prep for that Grade 1 fixture. The Apple Blossom will have a purse of $1 million for the first time when it is renewed April 17.
The Apple Blossom, one of most important races on the calendar for fillies and mares, is a goal for Monomoy Girl, according to her longtime trainer, Brad Cox. But the first order of business, he said, comes Sunday.
Monomoy Girl is part of a six-horse field for the Bayakoa, which also drew multiple Grade 2 winner Finite. The race will be Monomoy Girl’s first since she captured the Breeders’ Cup Distaff – her seventh Grade 1 win – on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. The following day she was sold at FasigTipton for $9.5 million to Spendthrift Farm, which sent her back to Cox.
“The next day she was at Churchill, so she was not out of our care long,” Cox said. “We just kind of backed off her a little bit. She had four races in 2020. The plan was to get her to the Breeders’ Cup. We were able to do that. That’s kind of the goal this year, to get her to the Breeders’ Cup again. We would like to have plenty of time between races. We don’t want to overdo it. This was a good stepping-stone to the Apple Blossom.”
Spendthrift Farm will be racing Monomoy Girl in partnership with MyRacehorse Stable and Madaket Stables. Spendthrift announced Friday that MyRacehorse Stable has “acquired a majority interest” in Monomoy Girl in a “lease-torace agreement” for 2021.
Monomoy Girl’s preparation for the Bayakoa has come at Fair Grounds, where Cox has a division. She’s turned in a strong series of works, and on Wednesday shipped into Cox’s Oaklawn stable, which is in a barn named for Zenyatta.
“She’s training really well,” Cox said. “I’m excited about getting [to run her] at Oaklawn. She adapts really well. She’s been able to win at Indiana, Churchill Downs, Fair Grounds, Belmont, Saratoga, Keeneland. I mean, she’s won at so many different venues. Oaklawn is a big part of our operation, and it would be great if she was able to step in here and pick off a couple of wins this spring.”
Monomoy Girl on Sunday will break from post 6 under regular rider Florent Geroux. She owns the field’s best last-race Beyer Speed Figure, a 100, for her 1 3/4-length win from post 10 in the BC Distaff.
“I thought it was a great race,” Cox said. “There seemed to be somewhat of a speed bias, maybe an inside bias that weekend, and I thought she was able to overcome it with somewhat of a wide trip. But that’s the trip she likes. She’s capable of getting it done with a little bit of ground loss. But it was a big race in the Breeders’ Cup.”
Finite brings the secondbest credentials into the Bayakoa as a multiple Grade 2 winner who has earned more than $775,000. She, too, has been prepping at Fair Grounds for what will be the start of her season. Finite arrived at trainer Steve Asmussen’s local division Tuesday.
“She’s trained really nicely,” Asmussen said. “She’s a very talented mare, but we’re well aware of what’s on the table.”
Ricardo Santana Jr. has the mount from post 3.
Asmussen also will send out stakes winner Another Broad. She will be making her third start for the barn and enters off a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Allaire duPont on Dec. 26 at Laurel.
“She’s had two graded placings for us without having ideal trips and deserves this opportunity,” Asmussen said.
Joel Rosario has the mount from post 2.
Monomoy Girl has won 13 of 15 starts – including the Kentucky Oaks – for earnings of $4.4 million.
“She just knows how to win, she knows what it’s about,” Cox said. “She brings it. She brings her game. She’s just a very, very determined filly. I would love to have a barnful of them, but they wouldn’t be that special if you had a barnful of them, I guess.
“She’s one of a kind – to say the least.”