Monomoy Girl picks up the pace

NEW ORLEANS – Champion filly Monomoy Girl will have her first workout of 2019 Sunday at Fair Grounds – or at least something close to it.

Monomoy Girl has advanced enough in her daily gallops here that trainer Brad Cox said he’ll train her at a two-minute-lick pace Sunday morning. Whether Monomoy Girl goes fast enough to make the official work tab is uncertain, Cox said. If she doesn’t, she’s likely to post her first timed work of 2019 the following weekend.

“She looks fantastic,” Cox said.

Arklow, fourth last out in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, is on a schedule similar to Monomoy Girl’s. Cox at one point thought he might make the Muniz Memorial Handicap here March 23, but that race now has been ruled out and Arklow could make his 5-year-old debut at Keeneland in April.

Tenfold gearing up

Tenfold, the 2018 Jim Dandy Stakes winner and most recently seventh in the Travers Stakes, is working at Fair Grounds toward his 4-year-old debut. Tenfold has posted five drills here since coming back into trainer Steve Asmussen’s barn, including a five-furlong work in 1:00.80 on Feb. 12.

“He got a little sick over the holidays and we missed a little time with him,” Asmussen said. “I don’t have a target for him at this point.”

Asmussen also has the very fast 4-year-old sprinter Mitole back on a regular work pattern. Mitole, unraced since May, started breezing in late November but Asmussen had to back off because of a foot bruise. Mitole worked five furlongs in 1:01.40 on Feb. 10, his third work without a gap. Asmussen said there aren’t yet set race plans for Mitole.

◗ Tom’s d’Etat, pointing for the New Orleans Handicap, had his first work since a ninth-place finish in the Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 26 when he went a half-mile in 48.80 here Friday.