British Idiom breezes easy three furlongs; Taraz plans pending

It’s hard to imagine an undefeated Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner who will win an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly being overshadowed by a stablemate in the same division. And maybe that won’t wind up being the case. But in the Fair Grounds stable of Brad Cox, exactly that dynamic seems plausible as the calendar rolls over to 2020.

On Sunday, British Idiom had her first timed workout since winning the Juvenile Fillies, going an easy three furlongs in 37.60 seconds. British Idiom won her debut at Saratoga and captured the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland and is sure to be champion 2-year-old filly.

“The work was really good; it was all we were looking for, just getting her back on the work tab,” Cox said Monday. “Her weight’s great, coat’s great, she’s moving well, and we have plenty of time to get ready for the Rachel Alexandra.”

The Rachel Alexandra Stakes is Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds. Cox said British Idiom would probably be “put on a similar path to Monomoy Girl,” who went from a win in the Rachel Alexandra onto victory in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland.

Whether British Idiom gets to the Ashland as the best 3-year-old filly in the Cox barn depends on what happens with Taraz, who followed a very encouraging Churchill Downs sprint debut win with an 11 1/2-length, geared-down victory in the Letellier Stakes on Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds. Taraz, a massive filly by Into Mischief out of the Empire Maker mare Silk Route, is scheduled to have her first post-Letellier work this weekend and, Cox said, has come out of the Letellier as well as she went into it. There still is no set plan for Taraz, a Juddmonte Farms homebred, with four races under at least nominal consideration – the Silverbulletday and Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds, the Martha Washington at Oaklawn, and the Forward Gal at Gulfstream Park.

Cox has a third Fair Grounds-based filly in the same division, Portrait, who is a prospective starter in the Jan. 18 Silverbulletday.

◗ Serengeti Empress, the 2019 Kentucky Oaks winner who most recently was third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, has rejoined trainer Tom Amoss’s stable at Fair Grounds after a December freshening in Florida. Amoss said Serengeti Empress is scheduled to work later this week. She could either be aimed for the Houston Ladies Classic in late January or the older-female dirt-route series at Oaklawn Park.