Monomoy Girl gets started on path to Rachel Alexandra

NEW ORLEANS – The Silverbulletday Stakes here Saturday includes some talented 3-year-old fillies, but another Fair Grounds-based horse in the division, Monomoy Girl, probably is as talented as any of them.

A Tapizar filly trained by Brad Cox, Monomoy Girl won her first three starts last year, including a 6 1/2-length victory in the Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill, but might have run her best race in her lone loss at 2, finishing second by a neck to Road to Victory in the Grade 2 Golden Rod on Nov. 25 at Churchill.

Monomoy Girl got a brief freshening, Cox said, but has been galloping a few weeks now and had her first workout as a 3-year-old on Jan. 7 when she went three furlongs in 39.20 seconds.

“She actually went from the quarter pole to the seven-eighths, the way it worked out,” Cox said. “She breezed great, galloped out great.”

Monomoy Girl had a strong fall schedule and a minimal winter break, and Cox said he is pointing her to the Rachel Alexandra Stakes here Feb. 17.

Also working Jan. 7 was Arklow, who went three furlongs in 38 seconds in his first drill of 2018. Arklow, who won the Grade 2 American Turf on Kentucky Derby Day last spring at Churchill Downs, hasn’t raced since a seventh-place finish in the Hall of Fame Stakes on Aug. 4 at Saratoga. Cox said the hope is for Arklow to make the Mervin Muniz Stakes on the Louisiana Derby card in late March, with a prep race a few weeks earlier. Arklow only has won twice and is eligible for a second-level allowance.