Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Loaded Cox barn has three in the wings for Risen Star
Trainer Brad Cox won one of the last 40-point Kentucky Derby qualifying races when Hit Show captured the Withers Stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct, and Cox now has three chances to land the first 100-point Derby qualifying race, the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds.
Cox put Victory Formation, Angel of Empire, and Tapit’s Conquest into the Risen Star when entries for the Feb. 18 card were taken Saturday in New Orleans. Victory Formation, with Flavien Prat named to ride, will be the best-fancied of the trio but also drew the worst post, 13, though the Risen Star at 1 1/8 miles features a lengthy straightaway before the first turn.
A whopping total of 14 were entered in the Risen Star, the last of 13 races on a card that starts at noon and includes an important Kentucky Oaks qualifier, the Grade 2, $300,000 Rachel Alexandra over 1 1/16 miles on dirt. The first five Risen Star finishers earn 50, 20, 15, 10, and five points, respectively, through the system employed by Churchill Downs to determine the 20-horse Derby field.
Cox already has won the first two races in the local division this meet, capturing the Gun Runner in December with Jace’s Road and the Lecomte last month with Instant Coffee, the latter awaiting the Louisiana Derby. Even with Instant Coffee sitting out, Cox’s roster of early Triple Crown hopes goes so deep that he is forced to run multiple horses in the same race.
Victory Formation, from the first crop of the little-heralded sire Tapwrit, began his career with a maiden sprint win at Keeneland and a first-level sprint allowance score at Churchill before landing the one-mile Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park. He’s been training at Fair Grounds since shortly after the Smarty Jones, and Cox has expressed confidence the colt will handle distances longer than one mile. Angel of Empire (Luis Saez riding) improved to finish second in the Smarty Jones and appears to be well suited to 1 1/8 miles. Tapit’s Conquest (Florent Geroux) finished a troubled second in a dirt-route allowance race on the Lecomte undercard.
The rest of the field from the inside out is hopeless longshot Quiet as Midnight (Emmanuel Nieves); recent Fair Grounds maiden winner Single Ruler (Jose Riquelme); another long price in Shaq Diesel (Adam Beschizza); Determinedly (Reylu Gutierrez), who initially was slated for a cutback to sprints after narrowly beating Tapit’s Conquest last month; Harlocap (John Velazquez), a last-start Santa Anita maiden route winner; Sun Thunder (Brian Hernandez Jr.), fourth in the Southwest at Oaklawn; Curly Jack (Edgar Morales), most recently second behind Instant Coffee in the Kentucky Jockey Club last November; Two Phil’s (Jareth Loveberry), the Lecomte runner-up; Silver Heist (Corey Lanerie), third behind Tapit’s Conquest in the Jan. 21 route allowance; Crupi (James Graham), a fivestart maiden in from Florida for Todd Pletcher; and Private Creed (Tyler Gaffalione), who goes turf to dirt for trainer Steve Asmussen.
Asmussen also trains Silver Heist and Harlocap, the latter coming into his barn for this start after being trained by Bob Baffert. Barring a legal reversal, horses trained by Baffert beginning Feb. 28 aren’t eligible to earn Derby qualifying points.
Hooiser Philly favored
Hoosier Philly, unbeaten in three starts and a smashing winner of two stakes to close her 2-year-old campaign, faces five foes in the Rachel Alexandra, her 3-year-old debut. A fivelength winner of the Golden Rod in November, Hoosier Philly, Edgar Morales riding for trainer Tom Amoss, has posted three fast works training for her comeback run. Her chief rivals are Chop Chop, a strong second last month in the Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds, and Pretty Mischievous, who passed on the Silverbulletday after winning the Untapable in December.
◗ Gentle Soul and Two Emmys, first and second last month in the Colonel E.R. Bradley Stakes, face off again in the card’s most consequential grass race, the Grade 3, $150,000 Fair Grounds. Two Emmys won the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial last March after finishing second in the 2021 renewal. The Fair Grounds also includes Tiz the Bomb, Pixelate, and four others.
◗ Nine were entered in the Grade 3, $250,000 Mineshaft at 1 1/16 miles on dirt, with 2022 Ohio Derby winner Tawny Port set to make his 4-year-old debut for Cox. Also entered were Happy American, already a two-time dirt-route stakes winner this meet, and Pioneer of Medina, third in the 2022 Louisiana Derby.
◗ The Colonel Power, a turf sprint, and the Albert Stall Memorial, a filly-mare turf route, round out the stakes action. A two-turn, first-level, dirt-route allowance race for 3-year-olds, carded as the eighth, lured six entrants including Banishing, whose romping Dec. 26 maiden win produced a 90 Beyer Speed Figure. Banishing was set to start in a race at this level Jan. 28, but was scratched with a relatively minor injury. Among his foes is First Defender, a sharp debut sprint winner Jan. 28 for Asmussen.