Cox wins fourth stakes in 24 hours as Celtic Chaos takes Morrissey

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - You don’t need a rabbit’s foot or a horseshoe for good luck. Just stand next to trainer Brad Cox.

Cox won two stakes by the slimmest of margins, including Sunday’s $100,000 John Morrissey Stakes for New York-breds at Saratoga with Celtic Chaos, who somehow got his nose on the wire in front of Build to Suit. That win came about 18 hours after the Cox-trained Beau Recall won the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar by a nose over Storm the Hill.

“I didn’t think we won either one of them,” Cox said. “We’re living right.”

Cox also won Saturday’s Grade 1 Test with Covfefe, who won by a whopping half-length over Serengeti Empress.

The trainer kicked off his big weekend when Maybe Wicked won the West Virginia Secretary of State Stakes at Mountaineer by 3 1/4 lengths on Saturday afternoon.

The Morrissey was run Sunday after it was lost when the last seven races on the July 25 card were canceled due to poor track condition. Celtic Chaos hadn’t run since May 31, so another 10 days wasn’t going to hurt him.

Celtic Chaos, under Dylan Davis, was fourth early, while Gold for the King set fractions of 22.79 seconds for the quarter and 45.70 for the half, chased by Eye Luv Lulu and T Loves a Fight.

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Turning for home, Davis presented Celtic Chaos five wide while Manny Franco was trying to rally Build to Suit inside of him. Inside the eighth pole, there were four horses across the track with Celtic Chaos advancing to the front. Build to Suit, under Manny Franco, was inside of Celtic Chaos and seemed to poke his head in front in deep stretch only to lose a tough bob to the resurgent Celtic Chaos.

It was a length back to Gold for the King in third. He was followed by T Loves a Fight, Eye Luv Lulu, and Saratoga Giro.

Celtic Chaos, a 6-year-old son of Dublin owned by Zilla Racing Stables, covered the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.45 and returned $13.20 to win. He improved his record to 9 for 35 and his earnings to $655,947.

“He broke a lot sharper than usual and I just wanted to get him in good rhythm,” Davis said. “He wanted to get running, so I took a shot going outside and he got it done. He dug in when Franco came up on the inside and he really fought to the wire. I thought I was on the losing side, but he got the head bob.”

Celtic Chaos won this race in 2017 when he was trained by Kiaran McLaughlin. Last year, Celtic Chaos finished third in the Morrissey with a troubled trip.

“He was very unlucky in this race last year, clean trip that day he gets the job done,” Cox said. “It was good redemption for him today.”