Mr. Monomoy takes them all the way in first division of Risen Star

NEW ORLEANS – Mr. Monomoy upheld the family name winning the first division of the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds.

The half-brother to the multiple Grade 1 stakes-winning champion Monomoy Girl was hustled to the lead from post 9 by Florent Geroux and laid down a moderate pace, setting splits of 24.22 seconds, 48.57, 1:12.85, and 1:37.65 on the way to a 1 1/8-mile clocking of 1:50.43, which was .75 of a second faster than the second Risen Star division run 36 minutes later.

Monomoy Girl was based at Fair Grounds before winning the 2018 Kentucky Oaks and Mr. Monomoy’s 50 qualifying points will be plenty to get him into the 2020 Kentucky Derby. Enforceable, who won the Lecomte Stakes here last month, a race in which Mr. Monomoy finished third, rallied steadily to claim second, edging a half-length clear of Silver State, who’d been second in the Lecomte. Enforceable got 20 Derby points, Silver State 10, and Farmington Road, who rallied wide and late for fourth, earned five points.

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The Risen Star was split into two division when it drew 23 entrants upon being drawn Feb. 8.

Brad Cox, who trains Mr. Monomoy for Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, and Doheny Racing Stable, had talked up his colt’s chances all week here in New Orleans. Cox said Mr. Monomoy had disliked his somewhat claustrophobic inside trip in the 1 1/16-mile Lecomte and was eager see him fall into a more relaxed journey, unfolding slower at the Risen Star’s 1 1/8-mile distance. That is exactly how things played out.

Geroux, who had been riding Enforceable before sticking with Mr. Monomoy in the Lecomte, tapped his horse for speed from post 9, crossing the horses to his inside and clearing to the rail before the first turn. There was no apparent overt inside-speed bias on dirt here Saturday, but being close didn’t hurt, and when Adam Beschizza held pace-pressing Blackberry Wine a length or so off Mr. Monomoy, it allowed the leader to settle into a good rhythm as a tailwind pushed the horses down the backstretch.

Beschizza played his hand past the three-furlong pole, drawing Blackberry Wine abreast of Mr. Monomoy, but the pacesetter shrugged off that challenge, turned back a mild bid from perfect-trip Digital, and had this race sewn up before the sixteenth pole. Cox liked his horse plenty, but the betting public remained somewhat skeptical and Mr. Monomoy paid $17,

“Today he got more of a free trip, not bottled up or having to be grabbed,” Cox said. “I had a little concern before they straightened up with that other horse breathing down his neck, but he kicked clear and then held off a few more of them. It was big effort.”

Trainer Mark Casse thought Enforceable, who was pinched slightly at the start and raced last of 11 into the first turn, was hurt by the lack of real pace in the race. Enforceable made an inside backstretch move to get better position before Julien Leparoux swung him wide for a long run home.

“The pace in front of us was not very fast, and that kind of cost us a little bit,” Leparoux said. “Other than that, he ran a big race. He was gaining, and he make a nice run at the end.”

Silver State, making just his fourth start and second going two turns, broke decently and dropped into a midpack position racing along the rail around the first turn and down the backstretch, but trainer Steve Asmussen said he was “a little too aggressive today. He’s a big baby Huey, physically and mentally.”

Casse and Asmussen said they expected their horses would return for the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 21. Cox was slightly less committal but said he liked the six-week break between the Louisiana Derby and the Kentucky Derby for his colt.

Mr. Monomoy is a son of Palace Malice out of Drumette, by Henny Hughes, and Cox described the colt as “a little backward” when he came into training as a 2-year-old. Mr. Monomoy was squeezed back at the start of his career debut at Keeneland in October, closing fast to finish fourth, and won a Churchill sprint race second-time out by more than five lengths. He was a close second to Lynn’s Map in a December allowance race here that led to the Lecomte and ran easily the best race of his career Saturday.

“This horse has come a long way since last summer,” said Cox.

Right around the corner from Mr. Monomoy in Cox’s Fair Grounds shed row lives his famous 5-year-old sister, who is trying to make it back to the races in 2020 after missing all of 2019. Maybe her glory lies in the past, little brother’s in the future.