Travel Column could have Fair Grounds on her itinerary

Travel Column will winter in New Orleans as her connections eye a possible start in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 13 at Fair Grounds.

Travel Column became trainer Brad Cox’s 30th graded-stakes winner of 2020 when she captured the Grade 2 Golden Rod on Saturday at Churchill Downs, beating Clairiere by one length in a race where odds-on favorite Simply Ravishing finished fourth.

Cox and Chad Brown are tied for the lead in North American graded stakes wins this year. Cox’s 30 such victories have come with just 91 starters, a 33 percent strike.

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Travel Column got an 84 Beyer Speed Figure while turning in easily the best performance of her three-start 2-year-old campaign. Pinched back at the start and last of nine early, Travel Column and Florent Geroux made a bold move off heels to go from two path to the four path at about the furlong grounds and ran down Clairiere, who appeared to be on the way to victory in midstretch.

Clairiere, making just her second start, is trained by Steve Asmussen and also could see Fair Grounds action this winter.

Travel Column, a Godolphin homebred by Frosted out of Swingit (making her a sister to $2.3 million earner Neolithic), won her Sept. 4 career debut at Churchill by more than four lengths before finishing a well-beaten third in the Grade 1 Acibiades.

“The Alcibiades, first time running two turns and against horses with more experience, that was a pretty big ask,” Cox said. “She ran respectable. She needed some seasoning and she got that.”

Travel Column’s schedule isn’t etched in stone, but Cox said starting her 2021 campaign at Fair Grounds made sense.

“We’ll try to get her a couple starts and continue putting together a résumé worthy of a [Kentucky] Oaks start,” he said.

Cox also plans to winter Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Essential Quality at Fair Grounds, but the colt has yet to ship south from Churchill and no plans have been set for his 3-year-old campaign.