Taraz, Mr. Monomoy showing Cox different things

The talented 2-year-old filly trainer Brad Cox has entered in a sprint stakes Saturday at Fair Grounds strikes Cox as a route horse. But the talented 2-year-old colt Cox entered in a route allowance race Saturday at Fair Grounds, Cox isn’t totally convinced he’ll go long.

The horses in question are Taraz, who is set to start in the six-furlong Letellier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies, and Mr. Monomoy, who races in a two-turn dirt allowance that functions as a prep race for the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes next month.

The Letellier is one of six stakes races on an excellent card that, beyond the stakes, is filled with allowance horses and promising 2-year-old maidens. The other stakes on the program are the Sugar Bowl, over six furlongs for 2-year-olds; the Bonapaw, an older-horse turf sprint; the Tenacious, an older-horse dirt route; the Buddy Diliberto Memorial, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for older horses; and the Blushing K. D., another turf route, this one for older fillies and mares.

Taraz, a Juddmonte Farms homebred, is by Into Mischief out of Silk Route, by Empire Maker, and though she has a female family littered with stamina influences, Taraz showed plenty of sprint speed in her Churchill Downs career debut and only start to date before drawing away to a 7 1/2-length victory while ridden out to the wire. Despite the wide margin of victory, Taraz’s performance produced a relatively modest 72 Beyer Speed Figure.

“Our goal is to stretch her out and we do feel like she’ll go long. This is the next best step for her,” Cox said. “We hope she can be a Kentucky Oaks filly.”

Mr. Monomoy, by Palace Malice out of Drumette, by Henny Hughes, is the half-brother of a filly who won the Kentucky Oaks, Monomoy Girl. Mr. Monomoy had early trouble and was last of 12 early in his career debut, a sprint race at Keeneland, and came with a long run to finish an encouraging fourth. He returned with a front-running 5 1/2-length maiden win going 6 1/2 furlongs Nov. 16 at Churchill Downs.

“On pedigree, yeah, he should go two turns. I don’t think he’s a six-furlong horse. A middle distance like a mile, mile and an eighth should be fine, but we don’t really know yet,” said Cox.

Both 2-year-olds shipped from Kentucky earlier this month and had their first Fair Grounds works on Saturday. Cox said both had breezed well and neither had any issue settling into new surroundings.

“Taraz, we had her at Churchill Downs, at Ellis, at Keeneland. We ship a lot of our young horses around a good bit just to get them used to things. We try not to have shipping as an excuse,” Cox said.

The 2-year-olds are only a small part of Saturday’s business at Fair Grounds, where Cox entered horses in 10 of the card’s 13 races. He has Dream Passage for the Blushing K. D.; Amongst for the Sugar Bowl; Dot Matrix, Factor This, and Secretary At War for the Diliberto; and Blended Citizen in the Tenacious.