Dual champion Covfefe retired

Covfefe, who just last month won Eclipse Awards as both champion 3-year-old filly and champion female sprinter, and who initially was announced as remaining in training for 2020, has been retired and will be bred to the white-hot stallion Constitution, her connections announced Monday.

Covfefe won six times in eight starts, with her final start a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita Nov. 2. She also scored a Grade 1 victory in the Test at Saratoga last summer. She earned more than $1.1 million.

After a freshening following the Breeders’ Cup, Covfefe was in training at Fair Grounds with trainer Brad Cox. She worked twice earlier this month, most recently a three-furlong drill in 35.60 seconds Feb. 15.

Cox, in a press release put out by Covfefe’s connections, said Covfefe “is retiring 100 percent sound.”

The Roth family – Larry, Nanci, and their daughter, Jaime – own Covfefe, racing as LNJ Foxwoods.

“As LNJ Foxwoods is primarily a breeding operation, my family has now chosen to focus on the next stage of her career,” Jaime Roth said in the press release. “She has given us some of the most incredible moments of our lives and we look forward to campaigning her offspring in the near future.

“We were left in awe of Covfefe’s accomplishments as a 3-year-old. To be named the first dual female 3-year-old champion since Rachel Alexandra was an honor. Covfefe is the epitome of why one gets into the game and did everything we could ask for as a racehorse.”

Covfefe, by Into Mischief out of the Unbridled mare Antics, was purchased by the Roths for $250,000 as a yearling by Alex Solis II and Jason Litt of Solis/Litt Bloodstock.

She raced twice at 2, winning a maiden race at Churchill Downs before finishing fourth as the odds-on favorite in the Grade 1 Frizette. Off until April, Covfefe embarked on a 3-year-old campaign that saw her win five times in six starts, with four stakes victories, including the Grade 3 Miss Preakness at Pimlico and the Dogwood at Churchill Downs.

“I feel privileged to have trained a dual champion,” Cox said. “She has been brilliant since day one. Her entire campaign enamored me, but the performance that stands out was her Miss Preakness Stakes. Covfefe broke the Pimlico track record by over a second, running in 1:07.70.”

Covfefe recorded Beyer Speed Figures of 107 in both the Miss Preakness and the Dogwood, and she got a 106 for her Breeders’ Cup win.

Covfefe on Monday traveled from Fair Grounds to Gainesway Farm, where she will reside.

Constitution, to whom she will be bred, stands at WinStar Farm. His first crop, now age 3, includes such outstanding runners as current Kentucky Derby favorite Tiz the Law, as well as Derby contenders Gouverneur Morris and Independence Hall, and stakes winner Laura’s Light.