Cox packs a 1-2 punch for Triple Crown debut

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brad Cox hasn’t spent a whole lot of time in Maryland. Based primarily in the Midwest, the 39-year-old trainer has traveled to Pimlico twice, Laurel Park once, and the Timonium sales a few times. One of his most enduring memories – the crabcakes at Michael’s, the popular restaurant located right across York Road from the Timonium fairgrounds.

“Amazing,” Cox said.

The taste of victory is what Cox seeks in his return to the Free State, where on Saturday at Pimlico he will saddle two starters for the 144th Preakness Stakes, Owendale and Warrior’s Charge. For as much as he has accomplished in recent years, Cox has never started a horse in a Triple Crown race.

“It’s exciting,” Cox said recently in his Churchill Downs barn office. “The thing is, we’re not just going up there to get a Preakness saddletowel or a ticket to the venue. I feel like we’ve got two horses that will be very competitive.”

While rebuilding his stable after being fired by his main client nearly seven years ago, Cox has done a tremendous job of spotting his horses properly. With a deep client roster that has become the envy of his peers, Cox has won at a 27 percent rate while amassing more than $42 million in purses in that time. Every succeeding year becomes his best. In 2018, Cox established career highs with 243 wins and nearly $15.2 million in purses, fourth-highest on the continent. He also trained his first Eclipse Award winner, Monomoy Girl, who won Cox his first Grade 1 in the Ashland, his first Kentucky Oaks, and his first Breeders’ Cup race in the Distaff. He has become a perennial leading trainer wherever he hangs his shingle, including at Churchill, Keeneland, Oaklawn Park, and Fair Grounds.

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And now there’s a new box to check. When Cox steps onto the Pimlico grass course to saddle Owendale for Rupp Racing and Warrior’s Charge for Ten Strike Racing and Madaket Stables, he’ll do so with more swagger than what might otherwise be expected from a trainer with zero experience in the Triple Crown series. That’s because he feels like he comes to town with serious weapons.

Owendale, a bay colt by Into Mischief, ran the race of his life in the April 13 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, rallying from well off the pace for a 1 3/4-length victory and earning a 98 Beyer Speed Figure. Florent Geroux has the return mount in the Preakness.

“People are saying he freaked, but honestly I expected it the way he’d trained into that race,” said Cox, whose only previous attempt to make a Triple Crown race came in 2016 with Dazzling Gem, who was excluded from the Kentucky Derby and then finished third in the Sir Barton at Pimlico. “After his final work here, more of the same. This horse is really doing well.”

Warrior’s Charge, a dark bay colt by Munnings, comes off back-to-back front-running romps at Oaklawn, ending with a first-level allowance win April 12 that earned him a 97 Beyer. The Sir Barton on the Preakness undercard had been the original target before the owners decided to roll the dice by paying a $150,000 supplementary fee to run in the Preakness. Javier Castellano will ride.

“This horse really turned a corner in his last two races at Oaklawn,” Cox said.

Cox said the owners of Warrior’s Charge “really feel like his figures are comparable to the best horses in the division, like Omaha Beach and Improbable and whoever else.”

“They do their homework and they’re very savvy,” he said. “With these syndicates, there’s not just one person assuming all the risk. It was their idea. I told them I wouldn’t be training the horse any different than if we were running in the Sir Barton. My job is to have the horse fit and ready. I feel like our crew has accomplished that, and now’s it about getting the right setup in the race.”

With their different running styles, Owendale and Warrior’s Charge “shouldn’t be getting in each other’s way,” in the 1 3/16-mile Preakness, Cox said.

“Obviously, there’s a question about the distance,” he said, “but they both just won going a mile and a sixteenth and I feel like they’re both ready to take on that extra furlong.”

Cox is known in Louisville as a hard-working hometown boy, someone who persevered through difficult times to make a name for himself here and beyond. His next frontier, the Triple Crown, awaits.

“Obviously, I’d love to go to Baltimore and win right out of the box, maybe go have some of those crabcakes afterward,” he said with a grin. “In fact, I’d like to win this one and then some more.”