Wiggins hopes to reach Oaks again with Cosmic Evolution

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Lon Wiggins knows what it’s like to be in the winner’s circle after the Kentucky Oaks. He was there in 2009 when his father, trainer Hal Wiggins, saddled Rachel Alexandra to a 20 1/4-length victory. Lon Wiggins would not mind getting back into the Churchill Downs infield this spring with Kentucky Oaks nominee Cosmic Evolution.

“We’re hoping and dreaming,” Wiggins said.

Cosmic Evolution starts her drive toward the dream Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn Park. She will be part of a six-horse field that includes Nickname, the winner of the Grade 1 Frizette, and Marquee Miss, who has won the Dixie Miss and Martha Washington stakes at Oaklawn. The Honeybee will be run over 1 1/16 miles and offers qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks. It also will mark the two-turn debut for Cosmic Evolution.

“It looks like on paper she’s a sprinter trying to stretch out, but I think she’s always been a route horse that hadn’t had the chance,” said Wiggins, 47. “She’s just been sprinting.”

Cosmic Evolution’s defining race to date is the $100,000 Debutante, which she won as a maiden last June at Churchill Downs. She proceeded to run third in the $100,000 Mountaineer Juvenile Fillies in August before getting some time off. Cosmic Evolution will enter the Honeybee off a first-level allowance win Feb. 6 at her base of Oaklawn.

“When she came back, we gave her a three-quarter sprint race as a prep to the Honeybee, hoping we would get to this point,” said Wiggins, who trains Cosmic Evolution for Stephen Fidel. “Everything’s gone really good so far.”

Cosmic Evolution was a $20,000 purchase at the 2014 Keeneland September yearling sale, where Wiggins had bought horses on behalf of several clients. She is a daughter of Proud Citizen and the winning Ghostzapper mare Laheen.

“We filled our orders, and she was the only one we had liked that was still sitting out there, and I called Steve Fidel and told him she was selling,” Wiggins said. “She was one of the first few hips that day.”

In advance of the sale, Wiggins sent an image of Cosmic Evolution to both Fidel, an Albuquerque, N.M., resident who previously had horses with Hal Wiggins, now retired from training, and Charles Kardoush, a mutual friend.

“I really liked her, and I went and I took a picture of her and sent it to Steve and Charlie, not even looking at the person who was holding the horse,” Wiggins said. “And they said, ‘How short is she?’ and I said, ‘She’s not short at all.’ Well, I got to looking, and they must have had a basketball player from the University of Kentucky that brought her out and was showing her. He was probably 6-foot-4 or 6-foot-5, and it made her look real short, but she actually was a decent-sized horse. We still laugh about that.”

Cosmic Evolution, who stands about 16.1 hands tall by estimation of Wiggins’s wife, Robin, received her early training at the Diamond D Ranch in Texas owned by the Dodwell family, and she was a quick study, said Lon Wiggins.

“From the first day they started the breaking process, it was probably seven days later she had an exercise saddle on her and they were riding her, galloping on the track,” Wiggins said. “She was just so smart. She’s always been that way. She doesn’t let anything bother her.”

Cosmic Evolution ran second in her career debut, a maiden special weight at five furlongs May 21 at Churchill. She then was a 1 1/2-length winner of the Debutante but did not return for the fall races at Churchill Downs.

“She had some ankle problems,” Wiggins said. “We could have pressed on her and made the Pocahontas, but we were hoping, being out of a Ghostzapper mare, that she would mature more as a 3-year-old, and she did. When we turned her out, you always hope that they get taller, they fill out, everything you want them to do as they’re turning 3, and she did all that. You hate passing up good races and trying to get graded stakes-placed in the Pocahontas, but our goals were down the road, and so far, it’s gone good.”

Cosmic Evolution worked a powerful six furlongs in 1:12.80 for the Honeybee on March 2 and came back with an easy half-mile in 52.60 on Tuesday. She will be ridden by Calvin Borel, who was aboard Rachel Alexandra for the 2009 Kentucky Oaks.

“I’ve been around Calvin for a long, long time, and we work so good as a team,” Wiggins said. “He’s just a good team player, and he’s been on so many top horses, and he knows what it takes.”

◗ Royal Story and Cced appear to be the chief players in Friday’s eighth race, an optional $75,000 claiming route for 3-year-old fillies. The purse is $78,000.