Essential Quality to return in Southwest Stakes

Essential Quality, the odds-on favorite to be named champion 2-year-old of 2020 when the Eclipse Awards are announced this week, will make his 3-year-old debut in the Southwest Stakes on Feb. 15 at Oaklawn Park, trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday.

Essential Quality has been working steadily at Fair Grounds this winter and had been under consideration for the Feb. 13 Risen Star Stakes in New Orleans, but Cox said after speaking with Jimmy Bell, president and racing manager of Godolphin, the colt’s owner and breeder, the decision was made to ship for the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest. The Risen Star is run at 1 1/8 miles, a half-furlong longer than the Southwest, and “distance plays a big role” in the choice, Cox said.

“The right thing for him off the layoff would be the mile and a sixteenth,” Cox said.

Essential Quality, by Tapit out of Delightful Quality, won a Churchill Downs maiden sprint in his career debut before an easy victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and a three-quarter-length score in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

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Jackie’s Warrior, another Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old, also is slated to have his first 2021 start in the Southwest. Jackie’s Warrior won the Grade 1 Hopeful and the Grade 1 Champagne before fading to fourth after contesting a strong pace in the BC Juvenile.

Cox still has a starter for the Feb. 13 Risen Star, Mandaloun, who was a close third as the odds-on favorite Jan. 16 in the Lecomte, his stakes and two-turn debut. Mandaloun is scheduled to work this weekend in blinkers and will race in them for the first time next month.