Eclipse Awards 2023: Brad Cox

If Brad Cox is not named champion trainer of 2023, it will be largely because Cox has become a victim of his own success.

Cox has trained more than 200 winners the last seven years. His runners earned a staggering $30.9 million during 2023, more than Cox’s stable earnings of $23.8 million in 2022, less than the $31.7 million he reached in 2021. Cox won 30 graded stakes during 2023, the fourth straight year he has won 30 or more graded races.

:: Full list of 2023 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

In 2023, Cox ranked first in purse earnings, third in total wins with 266, and third in graded stakes wins. He tied with Chad Brown for the most Grade 1 wins, at 12, and Cox had, amazingly, 10 different Grade 1 winners in eight different categories: older female dirt, older male dirt, 3-year-old male, female dirt sprint, female turf sprint, male turf, 3-year-old filly, and 2-year-old male. Cox’s 28 percent win rate is far higher than any trainer playing at such a high level and on vast volume.

It is not like this string of Eclipse-worthy accomplishments has gone unnoticed. Cox, after all, is a finalist to be named champion trainer for the third time. Thing is, Cox has reeled off similar stats on a yearly basis. In 2021, when he won his first Eclipse, Cox was fourth in wins, fourth in graded stakes wins, and first in earnings by just a couple hundred thousand bucks. No one had a better 2023, top to bottom and on straight statistics, than Cox. But at this point, that is merely achieving the expected.

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