Trainer Cox notches 1,000th victory

Trainer Brad Cox won his 1,000th race when Play On took the fifth race Sunday at Fair Grounds.

Cox, 38, hit the milestone early in his career. A Louisville native who went regularly to Churchill Downs as a kid and started walking hots on the backside there as a high-schooler, Cox long harbored dreams of becoming a trainer – and has become a bracingly successful one.

His first starters came in 2004 and by the end of 2009 his stable had amassed only 70 wins. But Cox won 55 races in 2010 and his arrow has mainly been pointing up ever since. He hit 98 winners in 2015, had 151 the next year, and with a month and a half still to race in 2018 had 220 winners through Sunday.

Even while increasing his volume Cox has managed to maintain a high strike rate, 26 percent so far this year.

The first thousand came quickly and at this rate the next thousand might take less than five years.