ELMONT, N.Y. – Brad Cox woke up May 1, 2021, thinking he’d win his first Kentucky Derby later that day. Never mind Cox was saddling his first Derby starter. This is a man, chronically optimistic, who says, “I will” and “I can” right up until the point it’s proven he actually hasn’t. Mandaloun and Essential Quality, Cox’s Derby runners, finished second and fourth. Cox didn’t win his first Derby. Or maybe he did. A positive result from a split sample this week confirmed the presence of the banned race-day medication betamethasone in Derby winner Medina Spirit. Appeals and legal wrangling are forthcoming, but Medina Spirit is on a path to disqualification, Cox to his first Derby win. “If it happens, it happens. Doesn’t consume me,” Cox said, sitting in his Belmont barn office on Tuesday morning. “Someone asked about the emotion of it. There’s no emotion! I got a lot going on. I’m worried about winning the fifth race at Indiana.” Indeed, an Indiana Grand condition book sat on Cox’s desk, and speaking of the number “5”, that’s how many Grade 1 races Cox could win Saturday at Belmont. He’s got runners in the Woody Stephens, Acorn, Metropolitan, two in the Ogden Phipps, and the morning-line favorite for the big one, the Belmont. Essential Quality, a solid, ground-losing fourth in the Derby, shipped from Churchill several days ago with a serious chance to give Cox his first win in a Triple Crown race. :: Belmont Stakes 2021: Get DRF Past Performances, Clocker Reports, and exclusive picks and plays so you can bet with confidence.  Winning would taste sweeter crossing the wire first rather than backing into victory months after the race, but Cox will learn to swallow training a Derby winner via disqualification, if that happens. “I saw Mott had a big old sign by his barn,” Cox said, referring to the signage identifying the Bill Mott-trained Country House as the winner, via DQ, of the 2019 Derby. “I guess I’ll get me a big old sign and process it that way.” Cox, also running strings in Kentucky and Indiana right now, and rarely at his New York barn, went outside to watch his Saturday stakes starters jog down a road, scrutinizing their gait for any sign of unsoundness. A murderer’s row. Knicks Go, 6-5 morning-line favorite for the Met Mile, looking the opposite of a horse worn out from a winter trip to the Middle East. Another gray, Travel Column, second choice for the Acorn, much more feminine than her 4-year-old stablemate Shedaresthedevil, among the favorites for the Ogden Phipps, which also includes the Cox-trained sleeper, Bonny South. Caddo River, a sleek miler type, cutting back in distance for the seven-furlong Woody Stephens. And Essential Quality, 2020’s 2-year-old champ, who never had lost until the Derby. “He’s a monster right now,” Cox said, admiring the colt. “Training great.” :: Bet the Belmont Stakes on DRF Bets! Join today with code DOUBLE and get a $250 Bonus.  A lot of people wanted to see the colt Mandaloun – who will become the Derby winner if Medina Spirit is disqualified – run in the Belmont. But by the time word leaked out the weekend after the Derby that Medina Spirit had gotten a positive test, Cox and Mandaloun’s owner and breeder, Juddmonte Farms, already had decided to take a pass on the rest of the Triple Crown. “Both horses ran hard races, winning-type races, which is why I wasn’t real comfortable running them back in two weeks – either one of them – in the Preakness,” Cox said. Cox said he doubts he’d have pointed Mandaloun toward Baltimore, even if he’d learned sooner there was a chance the colt could wind up winning the Derby. And the Belmont, Cox said, never reached the point of serious consideration for Mandaloun, who is by Into Mischief and out of Brooch, by Belmont winner Empire Maker, and is headed to the Pegasus and the Haskell at Monmouth Park. “I think a lot of the horse and know he’s out of an Empire Maker mare, but he never really struck me as a mile-and-a-half horse,” he said. “You’re still trying to develop these horses. They’re still young.” A few days after the Derby, in fact, no Cox runner was intended for the Belmont. Discussing Essential Quality’s path forward with representatives of the colt’s owner and breeder, Godolphin, the initial plan called for taking a short break and pointing toward two races at Saratoga, the July 31 Jim Dandy, followed by the Travers. “We breezed him once, he breezed well, and it was one of those things, from the Derby to the Jim Dandy, you look at a calendar and it’s a long time,” Cox said. “We just thought we’d see how he was training, and if it made sense, we’d pursue the Belmont if he’s doing so well, which he was and is. How can you keep him on the ground for two months?” :: Get DRF's Betting Strategies for exclusive picks and analysis from our expert handicappers.  Cox thinks Essential Quality probably was the best horse in the Derby; he lost because he covered so much more ground – racing wide on both turns – than the three horses who finished in front of him. By Tapit, who already has sired three Belmont winners, Essential Quality’s best quality might be his ability to sustain a solid pace over a distance of ground. He’s not an especially agile, quick, handy horse, and Belmont’s massive oval should suit him. Two races earlier, Knicks Go should take plenty of beating in the Met Mile, his first start since he finished a fading fourth in the $20 million Saudi Cup on Feb. 20. Cox attributed that defeat to a relatively short turnaround following Knicks Go’s win in the Pegasus World Cup. “Coming back in four weeks, shipping, we asked a lot of that horse,” Cox said. “I was very hesitant to go over there because of the four weeks.” Knicks Go, brilliant winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last fall, was freshened at a farm after returning to the United States and quickly bounced back into good form upon resuming training. :: Access exclusive morning workout reports and get an edge on Belmont Stakes Day with DRF Clocker Reports  “Physically, he looks as well and has trained as well as he was leading up to the [Dirt] Mile and the Pegasus,” Cox said. “I think he’s set up for a huge race.” Caddo River had to be scratched from the Derby after developing a minor illness. His performance level declined as the distance of his races increased this year, and Cox looks forward to a cutback in trip for him and for Travel Column, fifth in the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Oaks and 7-2 on the morning line for the one-turn-mile Acorn. Shedaresthedevil is 2 for 2 this year, winning her comeback start over Phipps foe Letruska and capturing the Grade 1 La Troienne on Oaks Day. Bonny South won the Doubledogdare at Keeneland in her lone start this year and worked heads up with Essential Quality on May 29 at Churchill. Cox thought he’d take the Derby and probably believes he could win five races on Saturday at Belmont. It’s easy to subscribe to the power of positive thinking when your star rises like his. In 2015, Cox trained 98 winners with stable earnings of $3.2 million. In 2020, he won 216 races and nearly $19 million. His horses won four Breeders’ Cup races last fall, and Cox won his first Eclipse Award. He’s on the way to winning his first Derby with one colt and has another set to win his first Belmont, and while Cox and his crew are running around Saturday afternoon, Essential Quality will be doing his own preparation. :: DRF's Belmont Stakes Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, past performances, analysis, and more “He can be a little mean, but he’s a very smart horse,” Cox said. “I knew coming into the barn today he’d have his head out of the stall for an hour and then I’d find him lying down, and there he was, asleep. I swear, on race day, he knows what’s going on, just sleeps, getting ready.” Cox woke up May 1 thinking he’d win the Derby. He’ll surely awaken June 5 believing he’ll win the Belmont.