Cox's powerhouse stable has talented trio gearing up for campaigns

Even with the surprise news Monday that dual-champion Covfefe had been retired, trainer Brad Cox’s outfit is absolutely loaded for the first part of the 2020 racing season. Cox has a bunch of good horses already on the go, and his roster is only getting deeper with 2018 champion 3-year-old filly Monomoy Girl penciled in for a breeze this weekend, Grade 1-class turf mare Juliet Foxtrot also set for her first work of the year, and Owendale, who could be a top handicap horse this year, back under tack at a Kentucky farm.

Meanwhile, no plans have yet been set for Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old males Mr. Monomoy and Shake Some Action, nor for the 3-year-old filly British Idiom, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2019. British Idiom finished a distant second in her 2020 debut to Finite in the Feb. 15 Rachel Alexandra Stakes but is doing well, Cox said, and is set to have her first work since that race sometime this weekend, depending on weather. Cox, reiterating information relayed the day after the Rachel Alexandra, said British Idiom could race next in the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 21 or the Ashland Stakes on April 4 at Keeneland.

Mr. Monomoy, who led all the way in a breakthrough performance winning the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 15, remains possible for either the Louisiana Derby at 1 3/16 miles on March 21 or the Blue Grass Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on April 4 at Keeneland. Mr. Monomoy also is set to have his first work since his last race sometime this weekend.

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Cox has a second Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old, Shake Some Action, who is bound for a Kentucky Derby prep following a turf maiden win in January and a 1 1/8-mile dirt allowance win on the Feb. 15 card. Shake Some Action, Cox said, will start next in the Louisiana Derby or the Jeff Ruby Steaks on March 14 at Turfway Park.

Monomoy Girl hasn’t started since she won the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and despite residing in Cox’s barn for much of 2019 never made it back to the races, though she posted several published workouts about this time last year at Fair Grounds and again late last summer in Kentucky. Monomoy Girl, Mr. Monomoy’s half-sister, has been training for several weeks now at Fair Grounds and if all goes well will work this weekend.

So, too, will Juliet Foxtrot, who ended a productive 2019 campaign with a second-place finish to champion Uni in the First Lady Stakes at Keeneland and a third in the Grade 1 Matriarch. It’s possible Juliet Foxtrot, a 5-year-old Juddmonte Farms homebred, could make it back for a race at Keeneland in April, but Cox mentioned the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes on May 25 at Santa Anita as a possible major early season goal.

Owendale, last seen finishing second to Tom’s d’Etat in the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill last November, is about ready to resume training and will join up with Cox’s string in Kentucky this spring.

Finally, Cox has entered the talented 3-year-old turf horse Hieronymous in the Black Gold Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, where he’ll be heavily favored over Pixelate and a handful of others. Hieronymous has won three of his four starts and on Feb. 1 won the Randy Romero Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds by nearly 10 lengths.