Nation’s top trainer seeks grand debut at Kentucky Derby
Trainer Brad Cox grew up a few blocks from Churchill Downs, so the Kentucky Derby is an even bigger deal for him than for most other participants in thoroughbred racing.
His career began in late 2004 and has taken off in the past three years — capped by an Eclipse Award as America’s outstanding trainer in 2020.
He hasn’t run a horse in the Kentucky Derby, but that changes Saturday when he saddles undefeated Essential Quality — the likely favorite — and Risen Star Stakes winner Mandaloun in the first jewel of the Triple Crown.
“We’ve been very fortunate to win two Kentucky Oaks, seven Breeders’ Cup races and the Eclipse Award,” Cox, 41, said in a recent conference call. “And those are things that I’ll never forget and be very proud of, but the Kentucky Derby is No. 1. I’m not bashful about saying it.”
Essential Quality is owned by Godolphin, LLC — the powerful international operation of Dubai’s ruling Maktoum family. Godolphin has won some of the most important races around the world, but its quest to add the Kentucky Derby has fallen short. Godolphin has had 11 horses in the Derby, with Frosted’s fourth in 2015 being its best finish.
“It just means a lot to us and to them,” Cox said. “And hopefully, we could get them their first Kentucky Derby and mine as well.”
It’s clients like Godolphin and Juddmonte — another international force that owns Mandaloun — that have helped elevate Cox’s game. He long has had a good win percentage, but his stable of mostly claiming horses didn’t pass $1 million in annual earnings until 2014 — the year he won his first gradedstakes event.
“I think the first seven individual gradedstakes winners we had were either horses who had run for a tag (claiming price) or had been claimed,” Cox said in an interview with Kentuckybased writer Jenny Rees published this year. “We had to develop them or improve them … something along the way that got them in good form. That’s how it really got kicked off. I think that’s when the larger outfits start calling you.”
Cox’s earnings rose each subsequent year and reached $18,991,582 in 2020. His operation now includes stables at several tracks, and he has won more than 200 races in each of the past four years after winning only 98 as recently as 2015.
“We have great clientele,” Cox said. “Great help. Great assistant trainers. And we’ve got the right people in the right places. We’re very blessed to have great clienteles supporting us with great bloodstock. It definitely gives you an opportunity to play at the high end.
“And our help, they’ve executed and performed in the mornings with training and schooling and preparing these horses, and it pays off in the afternoon.”
Cox didn’t win his first Grade 1 race until 2018 but now he has won 21 with horses like Monomoy Girl, Knicks Go, Covfefe, Shedaresthedevil, Juliet Foxtrot and — of course — Essential Quality.
“We’ve come a long way over the past three years,” he said. “Hopefully, we continue to move forward.”