Covfefe shatters track record in Miss Preakness romp

BALTIMORE – The original meaning of Covfefe may be up for debate, but her racehorse namesake is leaving no doubt that she means business.

In a spectacular performance, Covfefe on Friday set a track record for six furlongs at Pimlico when rolling to an 8 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

Covfefe ($5.60), the favorite, stopped the timer in 1:07.70, more than a second faster than the track record that had been held here by the older sprinter Northern Wolf since 1990. True, there is little racing here in recent years, but this was monster effort.

“The time was ridiculous,” Brad Cox, who trains Covfefe, said more out of admiration than disbelief soon after the race. “Amazing performance.”

Yes it was. Covfefe – named for an indecipherable word that ended a tweet from President Donald Trump – left the gate in a hurry and never was headed. She led through an opening quarter in 22.24 seconds, began to inch away from her rivals after half-mile in 44.43, then drew away with authority through the final quarter-mile.

She gave jockey Javier Castellano his third straight win on the card.

Please Flatter Me, who got a ground-saving trip behind the leaders, ran on for second, 3 1/2 lengths in front of third-place Tomlin. Midnight Fantasy was fourth in the field of nine.

Covfefe, a daughter of Into Mischief, won her debut last year and then was fourth in the Grade 1 Frizette before going to the sidelines. She returned last month after a six-month layoff to win a first-level allowance against older females at Keeneland.

“We’ll give her plenty of time to recover,” said Cox, who said more stakes racing was obviously in her future.

Cox has another top-level 3-year-old filly sprinter in Break Even, who won the Eight Belles at Churchill two weeks ago.

Covfefe is owned by the Roth family’s LNJ Foxwoods, giving them a nice consolation prize this weekend with Country House, the Kentucky Derby winner they co-own, on the sidelines. Covfeve was purchased as a yearling for $250,000.

The race was marred by the death of Congrats Gal, who collapsed about a sixteenth of a mile past the wire from what track stewards said was “sudden death.” They said a necropsy would be performed to determine the exact cause of death. Congrats Gal was making her first start since November. She had won three times in five starts entering Friday’s race.

– additional reporting by Jim Dunleavy