Cocked and Loaded shows best is yet to come
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ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The 2-year-old colt Cocked and Loaded won his career debut in April at Keeneland and his second start in the Tremont Stakes at Belmont Park in June, and after a sixth in the Sanford Stakes in July at Saratoga and a sixth as the 6-5 favorite in the Arlington-Washington Futurity in August, it was starting to look like Cocked and Loaded’s greatest asset had been his precocity.
But things look different this week, Cocked and Loaded having rebounded from consecutive losses to capture the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes last Saturday at Churchill Downs. Trainer Larry Rivelli said jockey Manny Esquivel told him he “smooched” to Cocked and Loaded on the backstretch, and the colt took off running. He made a big run to grab the lead and sustained that move, winning his first start around two turns by two lengths while earning a career-best 81 Beyer Speed Figure.
With the victory, Cocked and Loaded ran himself right into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile picture, and Rivelli said he plans to train Cocked and Loaded straight up to that race, with no interim start. Cocked and Loaded probably will work over the Arlington turf before shipping to Keeneland, where he’ll do the rest of his preparation for the BC Juvenile.
“I was so disgusted after his race at Arlington; couldn’t figure out what had happened,” Rivelli said. “What I know now is that it was the Polytrack. He just didn’t run on it.”
Rivelli said Cocked and Loaded had gone back to training Wednesday and appeared to have exited the Iroquois in great shape. By Rivelli’s reckoning, the stretch-out to two turns only did his horse good.
“He’s a naturally gifted horse when it comes to his air,” Rivelli said. “The thing about him is we can never really get to the bottom of him in the morning. You can never get him tired.”
Rivelli, the runaway leading trainer at Arlington this summer, said he has 15 stalls for the Keeneland meet in October. He said he plans to run the 2-year-old filly Moms Choice in the Jessamine Stakes there and the older female turf sprinter Richies Sweetheart in the Buffalo Trace Franklin County Stakes.