Wet Paint's stock back on the rise coming into Monomoy Girl

Wet Paint was the beaten favorite in the Kentucky Oaks on the first Friday in May. She has spent the past six weeks regrouping from a busy prep season and makes an anticipated return in Saturday’s $175,000 Monomoy Girl Overnight Stakes at Ellis Park.

Wet Paint, a Godolphin homebred trained by Brad Cox, won the Martha Washington, Grade 3 Honeybee, and Grade 3 Fantasy in succession at Oaklawn earlier this year. In the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, she made a mild bid to finish fourth – beaten just a neck for third, and less than three lengths total. Jockey Flavien Prat indicated post-race that a difference in track surfaces may have accounted for some of that margin.

“He said when he cut her loose, she wasn’t handling the track real well,” Cox recounted. “She finished up off class and off heart. But probably not her favorite surface. She was struggling with it. A very good filly won it.”

A very good filly, indeed. Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous came back to win the Grade 1 Acorn on June 9 at Belmont Park, edging out Dorth Vader, who had been fifth in the Kentucky Oaks.

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In addition to that flattery, it’s also perhaps fortuitous for Wet Paint – who will have Tyler Gaffalione in the irons with Prat riding elsewhere this weekend – that she won’t be working to handle the Churchill track. Churchill moved its racing to Ellis after a spate of fatalities marred the first week of its meet. The Monomoy Girl – named for Cox’s first Grade 1 winner – now also keeps Wet Paint, essentially, around two turns. While the mile is run around one turn at Churchill, the configuration at Ellis has horses breaking from a chute running through the clubhouse turn before swinging left onto the backstretch.

Grade 2 winner Hoosier Philly is winless this year, but did show improved form last time out, finishing second to Taxed in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico. That was another result that favored Wet Paint, as Taxed was second in both the Fantasy and Martha Washington, and ninth in the Honeybee.

Sabra Tuff, Grade 3-placed last year, should be tighter as she makes her second start off a six-month layoff. She is the only other member of this field with graded stakes accomplishments. Rounding out the group of six are allowance-level winner Champagne Calling, maiden winner Never Tell Patti, and last-out claiming race winner Flamand.

◗ The Monomoy Girl shares the card with the $175,000 Chorleywood Overnight Stakes for older horses going 1 1/4 miles on the turf, and Foreign Relations brings both course familiarity and recent form into the gate. He was second in his 2021 debut going this distance at Ellis, and eventually won a maiden race going 10 furlongs on Turfway’s synthetic. In his most recent start, he won the Grade 3 Louisville at 1 1/2 miles on Churchill’s turf for trainer Conor Murphy.

Tiz the Bomb (fifth), Therapist (eighth), and Bay Street Money (10th) all also most recently started in the Louisville.

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