Cox holds strong hand in pair of turf allowance races

Brad Cox isn’t winning races this meet at quite the frenetic pace he set on the way to leading trainer honors the last two Fair Grounds seasons, but Cox, with 14 winners through Jan. 12 this season, still sits near the top of a bunched trainers’ race and has live chances in both open allowances carded here Friday.

Silver Shaker looks a likely prime contender in race 6, a first-level allowance race for fillies and mares at a mile on turf, as does the Cox-trained Out of Trouble, should she draw in from the also-eligible list. The Cox barn also has two entrants for race 8, another first-level one-mile turf allowance, this one restricted to 3-year-old fillies and open to $50,000 claimers: Lady Jenneviere has sleeper potential, while Ginseng appears to be the filly to beat.

Ginseng, a Tiznow filly owned by Selective Stables, not only finished second of nine in a race at this class level and distance here Dec. 5, she did so while racing on the lead and near the rail during a period of the meet when outside closers were dominating turf races. Ginseng shows older form, too, that backs up the recent performance. She ran well enough in her debut win at Indiana Grand that Cox tried her in the P.G. Johnson at Saratoga, where Ginseng pressed a solid pace and lacked late zip, checking in fourth of seven. In a Keeneland allowance race two starts back, Ginseng got away slowly and raced from farther off the pace than she probably prefers, checking in fifth of 12.

Lady Jenneviere threw a clunker over a sloppy Churchill track she must have hated in her most recent start, last Nov. 30, but turned in turf performances last September and August suggesting she can’t be eliminated from consideration Friday.

Wexx, from the Larry Jones barn, finished in front of Ginseng in the Keeneland allowance race last October, and a sodden, laboring autumn course at Churchill might have been responsible for a lackluster showing in her most recent race.

Skygaze, trained by Mark Casse, would win this race if she could produce the form she showed over the synthetic surface at Woodbine last year, but her two grass races suggest she cannot. In race 6, Silver Shaker’s 1-for-17 win record discourages, but she’s certainly run fast enough to strongly contend. Post 14 proved her undoing in a race at this class level here Dec. 20, her first start for Cox. Silver Shaker ran late that day to finish seventh, beaten five lengths, but has a better draw and should be more competitive Friday.