Cox not rushing Monomoy Girl back to the races

Champion filly Monomoy Girl had her third work of the year Sunday at Fair Grounds, going a half-mile in 49 seconds, but while Monomoy Girl is coming around nicely toward her 4-year-old debut, trainer Brad Cox is in no hurry to pinpoint where that will come.

“I don’t want to feel like I have to have her at her very best in mid-April; I want to have her at her best for the Breeders’ Cup,” Cox said Sunday. “I’m not going to put her feet to the fire first race of the year. I’m not going to train her like that.”

Monomoy Girl has been on a Sunday work schedule since she resumed workouts Feb. 17 following a late-2018 break at a Florida farm, and because of that caught a fast track without having to alter her work pattern. Persistent rain has turned the Fair Grounds surface muddy or sloppy for many recent morning-training sessions, but Monomoy Girl happened to dodge the rain.

“She breezed really well today. She went early and the track was in good shape,” said Cox.

Monomoy Girl’s connections are considering four races for her first 2019 start: The Madison Stakes over seven furlongs and the Doubledogdare Stakes over 1 1/16 miles, both at the Keeneland meet in April; the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park; and the La Troienne at Churchill Downs.

Monomoy Girl finished first in all seven of her starts last year – including the Kentucky Oaks and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff – though she was disqualified to second behind Midnight Bisou in the Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing.

In other Cox-barn news, 3-year-old Owendale worked a half-mile Sunday, his first timed exercise since an eighth-place finish Feb. 16 in the Risen Star Stakes. Owendale, an encouraging first-level dirt-route allowance winner on Jan. 17 at Fair Grounds, is being considered for the Sunland Derby at Sunland Park or the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, Cox said.

Cox said the graded-stakes-class turf horse Mr. Misunderstood had his first work of the year Sunday, though the drill didn’t make the work tab because it began at the quarter-mile pole and ended at the seven-furlong marker on the clubhouse turn.

Finally, Cox confirmed that Harlan Punch, vanned off the track after a second-place finish Feb. 16 in the Mineshaft Handicap, has been retired. Harlan Punch sustained a serious but non-life-threatening ligament injury during the Mineshaft and has been shipped to a farm in Kentucky.