Cox lining up his ducks for Breeders' Cup

Brad Cox’s key contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Breeders’ Cup Distaff will follow different paths to Del Mar.

When Highland Falls, all being well, runs in the Classic, he’ll race for the first time since a surprisingly dominant victory Sept. 1 in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Idiomatic, before she attempts to repeat in the Distaff, will have a go at landing her second straight Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, Cox said this week.

Idiomatic brought a four-race winning streak to the 2023 Distaff at Santa Anita and with better luck she’d be unbeaten in four starts this year. Instead, Idiomatic, easily champion older mare last season, has two second-place finishes accompanying two wins.

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In the Ogden Phipps in June at Saratoga, she fell victim to a wide trip chasing a slow pace, falling just short of catching Randomized, who capitalized on the race flow. Chad Brown trains Randomized and got Idiomatic again last month at Saratoga in the Personal Ensign, where Raging Sea rallied into fast fractions that Idiomatic had contested and got up by a head, the same margin separating Idiomatic from a Phipps victory.

Idiomatic has worked twice since shipping back to Cox’s string at Churchill Downs. Cox termed her preparation for the Oct. 6 Spinster, where she’ll be heavily favored, “fantastic.”

Highland Falls, after he’d been hard held off a slow pace finishing a distant second in the Monmouth Cup in July, was given more rein and allowed to contest a strong pace in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, responding to the tactical change with a four-length score, his first Grade 1. Fourth in the Santa Anita Handicap in March, Highland Falls will return to California a fresh horse for the Classic.

“He breezed an easy half Sept. 20, but we’ll probably get rained out this weekend with all the rain we’re getting,” Cox said.

Forecasters expect the western edge of Hurricane Helene to dump as much as three inches of rain on Louisville.

Cox said that Emery, second behind Ways and Means in the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga, has the $350,000 Raven Run on Oct. 16 at Keeneland as her next goal. Meanwhile, plans aren’t set for the 2-year-old Shadwell filly Muhimma, who turned heads with a 7 1/2-length debut score Sept. 20 at Churchill, a performance that yielded an 82 Beyer Speed Figure. Cox describes Muhimma, by Munnings, as “massive,” and said connections might not rush into stakes competition.

“I don’t know if we have to do that. We could just wait and run back maybe in an allowance race at Churchill in the fall,” Cox said.

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