Monomoy Girl, Swiss Skydiver return to track
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Overshadowed by the Kentucky Derby and Oaks horses, champions Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver were relatively unnoticed as they turned in light training sessions Monday morning at Churchill Downs as their connections begin to consider their next target. They met in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap on April 17 at Oaklawn Park and were upset by Letruska, with Monomoy Girl second by a nose and Swiss Skydiver another 6 1/2 lengths back in third.
Two-time Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl, who crossed the wire behind a horse for only the second time in her career and the first time since November 2017, jogged a circuit of the Churchill track accompanied by a stable pony.
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“She’s back to the track and moving well,” trainer Brad Cox said. “She’s happy. She bounced out of that race in good shape.”
Cox said that he and the principals of Spendthrift Farm, which purchased the mare for $9.5 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale the day after her second Breeders’ Cup Distaff victory, have yet to circle a specific next race.
“There’s not a lot of options out there,” Cox said. “Obviously, the Ogden Phipps would be a race we’d have on our radar.”
The Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on June 5 is at 1 1/16 miles, contested around one turn at Belmont. That’s a similar configuration to the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at a mile at Belmont, which Monomoy Girl won in 2018.
Earlier on Monday, Swiss Skydiver, a divisional champion last year after a well-traveled campaign including a Preakness Stakes victory, jogged and then galloped a lap, having emerged from her trip to Oaklawn in good order.
“We had a little cut on a hind leg going into that last race, and I think it threw us off a little bit,” trainer Ken McPeek said. “I wasn’t real happy with the race. I kind of blamed it on myself. But she’ll be fine.”
McPeek said he will plan a summer-fall campaign for his champion.
“There’s nothing that I think really suits her right now,” he said. “The filly and mare Grade 1s are one turn, and I don’t want to change her distance at all. I’ll keep her at two turns.”