Monomoy Girl fires bullet for Rachel Alexandra Stakes
Monomoy Girl breezed five furlongs in 1:00 on Monday at Fair Grounds, the fastest of 55 such works that morning, and appears to be progressing rapidly toward her 3-year-old debut in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 17 at Fair Grounds.
Monomoy Girl figures to be favored in that race, and after winning three of her four starts at age 2, her lone loss a neck defeat to Road to Victory in a fast edition of the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs, Monomoy Girl rates as an early Kentucky Oaks favorite.
That’s not something often said of a horse whose first start came in a two-turn turf maiden race at Indiana Grand.
Monomoy Girl, a Tapizar filly owned by Sol Kumin’s Monomoy Stables and Michael Dubb, was based at Ellis Park last summer before she began racing. She trained decently but showed a deficiency: When breaking from the gate, Monomoy Girl didn’t exactly come out running.
“We took her to the gate a lot,” said trainer Brad Cox. “It was weird because it was like she just didn’t have a lot of interest in coming out. She’d just flop out of there with no urgency. We thought if we sprinted her, she was just going to get left.”
Monomoy Girl did break poorly first out but looped that field of turf maidens and won by more than three lengths. In her second start, on turf at Churchill Downs, she broke better and led throughout an allowance race. Then came a real test, a turnback to a faster-paced one-turn mile and a switch to dirt in the Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill.
“She broke really well and took off, and that was all she wrote,” Cox said.
Monomoy Girl won the Rags to Riches by more than six lengths, and after dueling on a fast pace in the Golden Rod, a two-turn dirt race, Monomoy Girl persevered and nearly overcame her tough trip, finally succumbing by a neck while nearly six lengths clear of the third-place finisher. The 91 Beyer Speed Figure assigned to her and Road to Victory was the highest number for a 2-year-old filly in a two-turn dirt race during 2017.
Monomoy Girl got a December breather while staying at the racetrack and has hit all her marks since resuming training.
“She’s a big, strong filly, and hopefully she’s got a huge 3-year-old year in front of her,” Cox said.