Juju's Map running on right day, but in the wrong race

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Likely, no one is going to feel especially sorry for Brad Cox this week. On Monday, Cox entered three horses – Cyberknife, Zozos, and Tawny Port – in the Kentucky Derby, and his stable is loaded with stakes-quality horses. One of those is the 3-year-old filly Juju’s Map, set to make her 2022 debut Friday in a second-level two-turn allowance race against older horses.

Cox, though, can’t help wonder what might have been. Juju’s Map has been training lights out here at Churchill and had been going very well at Fair Grounds before shipping north. But her return to Cox’s barn this winter was delayed long enough that the filly couldn’t be properly prepared for the Kentucky Oaks.

“We just got started too late with her,” Cox said. “She’s obviously that kind of filly.”

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Juju’s Map, by Liam’s Map, finished second sprinting at Ellis Park in her career debut last summer, but came around quickly once Cox stretched her out in distance. Juju’s Map won a one-mile Ellis maiden race by almost six lengths in early September and came back about a month later to dominate the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland. In the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Juju’s Map ran decently – but also ran into a freak, Echo Zulu, who beat Juju’s Map by more than five lengths.

Cox, who trains the filly for the Albaugh Family Stables, nominated Juju’s Map to the Eight Belles Stakes, also on Friday, but will run Beaumont Stakes winner Matareya in that seven-furlong contest.

Meanwhile, Cox’s actual Oaks starter Turnerloos, galloped Monday as well as Cox has seen her. “She was fantastic today,” he said.