Cox backs up Swill to one turn in Jerome; Saudi Derby on agenda

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While Friday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct is the first race of 2021 that offers qualifying points to the May 1 Kentucky Derby, it is another Derby that interests the connections of Swill, the morning-line favorite in the Jerome.

Trainer Brad Cox said the $1.5 million Saudi Derby at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh on Feb. 20 is a race he would like to make with Swill. That race is a one-turn mile, as is the Jerome.

Swill, a son of Munnings, may have shown his distance limitations in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, a two-turn, 1 1/16-mile race, when he flattened out in the stretch and finished fourth behind Keepmeinmind. Swill was a bit rank early, was checked into the first turn, and fought jockey Florent Geroux before settling behind the first flight.

“The race didn’t unfold the way I thought it would,” Cox said. “We thought he’d be on the lead.”

Cox, somewhat suspect of Swill’s ability to get two turns, removed blinkers from Swill’s equipment despite the fact he had won in them going seven furlongs on Sept. 24. He will leave them off for the Jerome and bank on jockey Kendrick Carmouche’s skill with a speed horse to have Swill forwardly placed Friday.

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“He’s been forward enough in his training with no company, and I have Kendrick on him and he’s known for getting horses involved,” Cox said. “I don’t want him to be overly tough.”

Swill breaks from post 2.

Original is getting a second chance on dirt for trainer John Terranova and owner Eric Fein. A son of Quality Road who brought $425,000 at auction, Original finished eighth in his debut on dirt. He came back to record a front-running two-length victory on turf Nov. 14 at Belmont.

“Since then he’s done nothing but physically get stronger, better, sharper,” Terranova said. “He’s ready to do something. Being that the early part of the year for 2-year-olds turning 3 there’s not much turf going on until the spring, if we did try and it didn’t work out we got time to regroup and refocus on the turf.”

Terranova believes Original would relish a wet track should it come up sloppy as the forecast suggests. Original breaks from post 5 under Jose Lezcano.

New York-breds Eagle Orb and Hold the Salsa are both stakes winners against restricted company. Eagle Orb won the Notebook Stakes going six furlongs over a good Aqueduct main track on Nov. 14.

Hold the Salsa won the Bertram F. Bongard and the Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Series, both going seven furlongs. He finished fourth in the Sleepy Hollow, a race from which he emerged with mucous in his lungs.

Capo Kane, a son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, ships in off a maiden victory at Parx Racing for trainer Harold Wyner. He breaks from the rail under Dylan Davis.

The Jerome goes as race 8 on a nine-race New Year’s Day card that begins at 12:50 p.m.

Horses will not be permitted to race on Lasix in the Jerome or any other stakes races on the NYRA circuit in 2021.