Gagetown gets up in Prairie Mile as Cox wins 2 of 3 stakes
Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox could have a big day with a host of Grade 1 runners Saturday in New York. On Friday, he had a good night in Iowa, where Cox-trained horses won two $50,000 stakes races and finished second in a third.
Gagetown led the proceedings with a game victory in the Prairie Mile, a prep for the Iowa Derby next month. Tracking favored pacesetter Flash of Mischief, Gagetown and jockey Fernando de la Cruz had one length to make up at the stretch call but finished with determination to get up by a neck just before the finish. Gagetown was timed in 1:36.78 for the mile on a fast track and paid $9.40 winning his first stakes race. The top two were well clear, Flash of Mischief 3 1/2 lengths in front of third-place Sermononthemount.
Gagetown, by Exaggerator out of Betty’s Solutions, by Eltish, won for only the second time in seven starts but has raced competitively every time he has gone to the post. His previous victory had come over six furlongs, and Gagetown on Friday stretched back out to two turns following two sprints. Cox trains the colt for Rupp Racing.
Six-year-old Plainsmen was the 1-5 favorite for the Jim Rasmussen, an older-horse 1 1/16-mile contest, but despite setting a slow pace was all out to hold off Rated R Superstar, who loves the Prairie surface. Francisco Arrieta rode Plainsmen for Cox and Shortleaf Stable in a field reduced to four by scratches of Background and Hunka Burning Love.
Oliviaofthedesert ($5.40) stopped a Cox sweep with a one-length win in the one-mile Panthers, a prep for the Iowa Oaks. Trained by Ken McPeek and ridden by Shane Laviolette for owner Susan Moulton, Oliviaofthedesert came from last in a four-horse field in a race with a stark fast-early, slow-late race shape. Off a half-mile split of 46.36 seconds, Oliviaofthedesert was timed in 1:38.18 after running down the Cox-trained leader Sister Annie, who was second by more than five lengths. Oliviaofthedesert, who won for he fourth time in 11 starts, has a fashionable pedigree as a daughter of Bernardini and the Unbridled’s Song mare, Queenie’s Song.