Leofric extends Cox's hot hand with victory in Clark Handicap

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brad Cox doesn’t want to be woken up. A dream year continued Friday for the 38-year-old Louisville-born trainer when he sent out Leofric to a hard-fought victory over Bravazo in the 144th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.

“This is awesome, the horse ran awesome,” Cox said shortly after Leofric won under Florent Geroux. “It’s a great feeling to win races like this in front of the home crowd.”

Under the Churchill lights, Leofric took a different path to victory than nearly four weeks ago, when he captured the Fayette Stakes at Keeneland from very near the lead. Laying a bit farther back while saving ground on both turns of the 1 1/8-mile race, the gray 5-year-old horse swung out for the drive and gave everything he had in turning back Bravazo by a neck.

Leofric paid $8.60 as third choice in a field of eight after finishing in 1:48.59 over a fast track. Seeking the Soul, the 123-pound highweight and 3-2 favorite who was seeking to become the first repeat winner of the Clark in 40 years, made an upper-stretch bid but could do no better than third, finishing 2 3/4 lengths behind Bravazo. Prime Attraction, who set the pace to the top of the stretch, faded to fourth, another three-quarters of a length back.

“It was a great ride from Florent,” said Cox, who has enjoyed a championship season with Geroux with the standout 3-year-old filly Monomoy Girl.

“The trip probably made the difference between my horse and Bravazo,” said Geroux. “I was sitting right in the pocket and knew Prime Attraction was going to carry me a long way.”

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Down the stretch, as Bravazo loomed menacingly while farthest outside, Leofric dug in for the first Grade 1 victory of a 14-race career. He has now won eight times, including two other graded races. Steve Landers, a Little Rock, Ark., car dealer, owns the Kentucky-bred son of Candy Ride.

“This horse has been doing extremely well all summer and fall,” said Cox. “He showed up. This horse, you get into a fight with him, he’s going to give you what he’s got. He ran huge.”

For Geroux, the win was his second in the Clark, following Gun Runner’s victory two years ago. For Cox, the Clark victory gives him more than $14.3 million in stable earnings for 2018. He said Landers wants to campaign Leofric as a 6-year-old, with the Oaklawn Handicap in April likely to be the first main target.

For Bravazo, the lone 3-year-old in the field, the defeat was a tough one. Always in striking distance under Joel Rosario, the Calumet Farm homebred completed a season in which he had 2 wins, 3 seconds, and 2 thirds from 11 starts, all against top-flight competition, including all three Triple Crown events. His neck defeat as the Preakness runner-up was the closest any horse ever came to beating Justify, the undefeated (and retired) Triple Crown winner.

“I’m so proud of his effort,” said Rosario. “He tried the entire way down the lane and we almost got the job done.”

D. Wayne Lukas, the Hall of Fame trainer of Bravazo, was seeking his third victory in the Clark, with the previous two having come with 3-year-olds: Surfside, a filly, in 2000, and Will Take Charge in 2013.

After the top four, the order of finish was Hence, Hawaakom, Stormy Advisory, and Sightforsoreeyes.

The $2 exacta (5-6) paid $46.20, the $1 trifecta (5-6-3) returned $52.70, and the 10-cent superfecta (5-6-3-1) was worth $12.17.

The most important mutuel development of the card, however, came one race later, when the Churchill stewards declared a rare double-disqualification of the first two finishers in the 12th-race finale, awarding Laser Loop the victory.

Presidential Tweet was the first-place finisher in race 12 and would have given one bettor a sweep of $317,738 of the entire Single 6 pool – but, instead, with his disqualification, there will be a carryover of the same amount into the Stars of Tomorrow all-2-year-old card Saturday, followed by a mandatory pool disbursement (and the likelihood of a far greater Single 6 handle) on Sunday, closing day of the 21-day fall meet.