Cox trots out another juvenile star with Turnerloose in the Jessamine
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Brad Cox largely built his training career with seasoned older horses, but his two most recent stakes wins came with 2-year-old fillies.
Might as well make it a third.
After winning the Grade 1 Alcibiades with Juju’s Map and the Grade 3 Matron with Bubble Rock on what was another big weekend for Cox, he will send out Turnerloose as the likely favorite in the Grade 2, $200,000 Jessamine Stakes as a five-day race week begins Wednesday at Keeneland.
“She sure ran big at Kentucky Downs last month,” said Cox, “and since then she’s had three really nice breezes on the dirt. We’re expecting a really big effort and hoping to move on to the Breeders’ Cup with her.”
Turnerloose, with Florent Geroux riding from post 3, is part of an oversubscribed field of 2-year-old fillies in the 31st Jessamine, the last of 10 Win and You’re In qualifiers at the 17-day Keeneland fall meet toward the Nov. 5-6 Breeders’ Cup. In all, 16 are entered in the 1 1/16-mile turf race, with only as many as 14 being allowed to start.
The Jessamine will be the last of eight races Wednesday and will be spotlighted on a one-hour broadcast on NBCSN starting at 4 p.m. Eastern. Post time is set for 4:44.
A Nyquist filly owned by Ike and Dawn Thrash, Turnerloose was a five-length winner over another Cox trainee, Yin Yang, in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies on Sept. 6, keeping her unbeaten in two career tries. Last fall, Cox won the Jessamine with Aunt Pearl, who then proceeded to give the 41-year-old trainer one of his record-tying four wins during the ensuing two-day Breeders’ Cup by romping in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Turnerloose “is going to have to step up her game to accomplish the same kind of things Aunt Pearl did, but I do think she has real potential,” said Cox, whose first-ever graded win came in 2014 with a hard-knocking gelding named Carve.
Among the top threats to Turnerloose is Decree of Love (post 9, Irad Ortiz Jr.), also a last-out winner at the rich Kentucky Downs meet. The Declaration of War filly scored by 2 1/4 lengths when ridden by Ortiz in a one-mile maiden race, an effort that followed a decent fourth-place finish in an August debut at Saratoga.
“She’s had two good races,” said Mike Maker, who trains Decree of Love for Three Diamonds Farm. “She needed the first one, then came back and met the expectations we’ve had for her by winning at Kentucky Downs. We’ll see where she fits with these top 2-year-old turf fillies by how she runs Wednesday.”
Wednesday is scheduled to be the second and last appearance at this meet for Ortiz, the three-time reigning Eclipse-winning jockey. Ortiz capped a two-win day here Sunday by winning the Grade 1 Spinster aboard Letruska.
Further considerations in a competitive Jessamine include Dressed (post 12, Flavien Prat), a good-looking allowance winner at Kentucky Downs for Wayne Catalano, and Diamond Wow (post 14, Mike Smith), who was scratched Friday from the Alcibiades after being sent here from Florida off a pair of one-turn victories to open her career.
Fringe contenders include Bhoma (post 6, Brian Hernandez Jr.), a last-out Churchill Downs maiden winner with a strong grass pedigree, and the trio of Queen Judith (post 8, Julien Leparoux), Boxing Day (post 13, Adam Beschizza), and Misthaven (post 10, Tyler Gaffalione), all of whom won on debut in Kentucky Downs sprints when rallying from well back.
Hernandez, who took the early lead atop the jockey standings by riding five winners on the meet’s opening three-day weekend, already has teamed with trainer Ken McPeek to win two stakes, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity with Rattle N Roll on Saturday and the Grade 2 Bourbon with Tiz the Bomb on Sunday.
McPeek noted that Bhoma, by Bernardini, was produced by the War Chant mare Mom’s Deputy, making her a half-sister to Mom’s On Strike, who was a four-time stakes winner on turf, including the Grade 3 Bewitch in 2018 at Keeneland.
“I think she’ll love the grass,” he said.
The Jessamine is the final leg of the new Keeneland Turf Pick 3, a $3-minimum wager with a 15 percent takeout. The sequence starts with races 4 and 6. There will not be a Turf Pick 3 wager on Thursday.
A firm turf can be expected Wednesday. More terrific weather is in the local forecast, with mostly sunny skies and a high near 80.
General admission ($7) to Keeneland is available through online sales only. A crowd limit of about 20,000 was imposed for the first two days of the meet (Friday and Saturday) in view of the ongoing pandemic. Ample tickets are available for weekdays, but the next two Saturdays (Oct. 16 and 23) also are currently sold out.