Cox looks to take another big purse in St. Louis Derby

The partnership between FanDuel and Fairmount Park has yielded a rare rich stakes race at the southern Illinois track, the $250,000 St. Louis Derby, headlining the Saturday evening program.

Trainer Brad Cox has a horse for the race. Of course, he does.

Cox during 2021 has been on an incredible run winning 3-year-old dirt-route stakes with six- or even seven-figure purses. Essential Quality, favored Saturday at Saratoga in the Travers, won the $1.5 million Belmont as well as the $800,000 Blue Grass and the $750,000 Southwest. Mandaloun won the $1 million Haskell, the $400,000 Risen Star, and the $150,000 Pegasus. Cox-trained 3-year-olds have won the Texas Derby and Oaklawn Invitational. They’ve won the Matt Winn and two versions of the Smarty Jones – the one at Oaklawn and this past Tuesday’s $300,000 race at Parx Racing. That’s 10 dirt-route stakes for 3-year-olds, and Gagetown will try to make it 11 at Fairmount.

Gagetown is the 9-5 favorite on the track’s morning line and will break from the rail facing six rivals in the 1 1/16-mile St. Louis Derby. Fernando De La Cruz has the mount and gave Gagetown a sweet trip when the colt, by Exaggerator, won the $50,000 Prairie Mile on June 4, Gagetown’s best race to date.

“I thought his race in the Prairie Mile was really good. Fernando gave him a fantastic ride,” Cox said.

The speed horses got away from Gagetown in his most recent race, a distant third-place finish July 2 in the Iowa Derby.

“Stilleto just jumped on the lead and was gone,” Cox said, referring to the race’s front-end winner.

Stilleto Boy isn’t running at Fairmount, but the Iowa Derby runner-up, Flash of Mischief, is part of the field. While Gagetown has freshened up, Flash of Mischief went to Saratoga and finished a decent fourth racing 6 1/2 furlongs over a sloppy track in the Grade 2 Amsterdam. His speed probably is more effective in two-turn races, but several other pace factors are entered.

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Chief among them is Irish Unity, a Pioneerof the Nile colt trained by Steve Asmussen, a true master of taking down rich 3-year-old dirt-route purses like this. Irish Unity won a pair of Lone Star sprints to start his career earlier this season before dueling on the lead and fading to second facing older horses in a second-level route allowance July 16 at Ellis Park. Irish Unity is out of the great broodmare Justwhistledixie, who has produced Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner New Year’s Day, multiple graded stakes winner and successful young stallion Mohaymen, and two other graded stakes winners over a route of ground.

Hozier was a well-regarded Triple Crown prospect early in the year but has not, to all appearances, developed much since March. Two Worlds, W W Crazy, and Ekatimorningstrike complete the field.

The St. Louis Derby is carded as the sixth race, post time 9:55 p.m. Central, on a card that starts at 7:30 p.m.