Acorn Stakes might be next for Oaks winner Monomoy Girl

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Monomoy Girl came out of her victory in the 144th Kentucky Oaks in good shape, trainer Brad Cox said Saturday morning at Churchill Downs, reiterating that he will work backward from the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Distaff in mapping out a race schedule for the star filly over the next six months.

Monomoy Girl, owned by a four-way partnership, turned back Wonder Gadot in winning the Grade 1 Oaks here Friday before an ontrack throng of 113,510. It was the first Oaks win for Cox, a Louisville native, as well as French-born jockey Florent Geroux. Monomoy Girl was the 5-2 second choice in a full gate of 14 3-year-old fillies.

“It was amazing,” said Cox. “It’s more than you would ever expect as far as the excitement and the thrill. It was an amazing race. It was an unbelievable quarter-mile. From the quarter pole to the wire, it was a battle. It was intense. It was a great outcome for us for sure. I couldn’t be happier.”

Cox said the Grade 1 Acorn, a one-mile race on the June 9 Belmont Stakes card, could be next for Monomoy Girl, now a winner in six of seven career starts.

Cox said his other two Oaks fillies, Sassy Sienna (sixth) and Kelly’s Humor (eighth), also emerged in good order.

Meanwhile, the Ontario-bred Wonder Gadot surely became the favorite for the premier race in Canada, the $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine, and will be pointed to that June 30 race, said trainer Mark Casse.

“She is amazing, she’s bouncing around,” Casse said Saturday morning.

Casse said Wonder Gadot will leave for Woodbine in a matter of days and resume training over the Tapeta surface at the Toronto-area track, then likely will have the June 9 Woodbine Oaks as an interim prep.

Midnight Bisou, third as the 2-1 favorite, also is fine and will return to her Southern California base Tuesday with a planeload of other horses here for Derby weekend. The late-running filly did not have the best of trips when away a bit tardily and encountering a bit of traffic.

“I just wish we had been in a fair fight,” said trainer Bill Spawr. “But she’s all right this morning, and that’s what really matters. She’s better than I thought she would be.”

Among the Oaks disappointments was My Miss Lilly, 11th as the 8-1 co-third choice. She will return Monday to trainer Mark Hennig’s base in New York.