Chop Chop, Concepcion earn first grades stakes wins in Bewitch

It’s easy to forget that Chop Chop was the favorite in the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland, where she turned in an eminently forgettable performance, finishing last of 13. Chop Chop ran three mediocre allowance races last fall in Kentucky, which earned her a winter with trainer Brad Cox’s string at Turfway Park, rather than Fair Grounds. But Chop Chop came to life at Turfway, winning one stakes race and finishing second in another before Cox put the filly in the Bewitch Stakes, the closing day feature at Keeneland. Chop Chop never had run farther than 1 1/8 miles, but she thrived going 1 1/2 miles on grass Friday, winning the Grade 3, $300,000 Bewitch by 2 1/4 lengths over Atomic Blonde.

It was not only a first graded-stakes win for the 4-year-old filly, but a first for the young rider on her back, Axel Concepcion, champion apprentice jockey of 2023, now a journeyman trying to find his way. Concepcion’s agent is Cox’s son, Bryson Cox. He has an in with the right outfit.

The Bewitch was thrown wide open Friday morning when the mare who had won the race three years in a row, War Like Goddess, was scratched from her intended 7-year-old debut. Trainer Bill Mott reported War Like Goddess kicked her hind leg, opening a cut that Mott termed relatively minor but enough to keep her from racing. Queen’s Command and Commandandcontrol also scratched. Favored Vergara was racing for the first time since November, as was Atomic Blonde, who had ended her 2023 campaign in poor form.

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The Bewitch was ripe for the taking, and Chop Chop took it.

Concepcion had ridden Chop Chop three times at Turfway and gave the filly a beautiful trip Friday after breaking from the rail. Concepcion partway through the three-turn race edged off the fence and began tracking Vergara, the horse he said he was targeting. Vergara took over from the slow pace-setting Lovely Princess into the far turn, but Chop Chop clearly had momentum and drew alongside Vergara at the five-sixteenths pole. Chop Chop had the lead at the head of the homestretch and solidly saw out this marathon trip, getting her final quarter-mile in a respectable 23.76 seconds.

Chop Chop was timed in 2:27.80 over a firm course and paid $8.92. The 4-year-old filly is by City of Light out of Grand Sofia, by Giant’s Causeway, and was bred in Kentucky by Cobra Farm and MRJ Thoroughbreds.

“It’s just been a lot of ups and downs with her,” Cox said. “We liked her a lot as a 2-year-old, really though in the Breeders’ Cup she was going to win.”

Cox said Jerry Bach, who races as Selective LLC, considered retiring Chop Chop to become a broodmare in 2024. Instead, she became a graded-stakes winner.

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