NATION’S LEADING TRAINER BRAD COX NOMINATES EIGHT FILLIES TO $75,000 TRAPEZE STAKES AT REMINGTON PARK
The country’s leading trainer by money earned, Brad Cox, dominated the nominations for the $75,000 Trapeze Stakes scheduled for the final night of the Remington Park season on Friday, Dec. 15. Cox nominated 8-of-25 juvenile fillies for the race.
The Trapeze Stakes is set for one mile on the main track.
Two of the Cox fillies are stakes winners and another is stakes placed. Cox has the most horses’ earnings of any trainer in the country with $29,668,281 in his 2024 bankroll. His stakes winners nominated to the Trapeze are Caldwell Luvs Gold, who won the $200,000 Seeking the Ante Stakes at Saratoga that was restricted to New York-bred 2-year-old fillies on Aug. 27, and West Sunset, who captured the $200,000 Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs on Oct. 29 in open company.
The top-earning filly in the Trapeze, if Cox chooses to enter her, would be Caldwell Luvs Gold. The 2-year-old daughter of Goldencents, out of the Quality Road mare Snow, has banked $217,400 for owner Dicke Racing. She was bred in New York by Jeremiah Desmond & Drumkenny Farm. She was purchased by Melissa Dicke at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Preferred New York Bred Yearling Sale for $73,000 in 2022.
Caldwell Luvs Gold won the first two races of her career, breaking her maiden on July 27 this year at Saratoga by 2-3/4 lengths with jockey Florent Geroux up. Geroux has finished seventh in earnings in the nation in three of the past four years. He also was aboard when she won the Seeking the Ante Stakes. She moved to the Belmont at Aqueduct meet in the fall and ran second and third, respectively, in the $125,000 Joseph A. Gimma Stakes and the Maid of the Mist Stakes. Caldwell Luvs Gold raced Saturday at Aqueduct, stepping up in class again, running fifth in the Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes.
West Sunset, a daughter of West Coast, out of the Vindication mare Vindicated Ghost, would be the second-highest earner in the field if she were entered in the Trapeze with $195,745 pocketed after only three starts. She is owned by Gary and Mary West, who also bred her in Kentucky. The Rags to Riches Stakes was run over a sloppy track and she had a three-length lead almost before the other fillies realized what was happening. She was up by that many at the first call. The first half-mile was timed in :48.99 and she stopped the timer for 1-1/16th miles in 1:46.31 under jockey Flavien Prat, her regular rider. West Sunset won that race by 6-3/4 lengths. In her subsequent start on Nov. 25 in the Grade 2, $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes on a fast track and she jumped out to a big early lead again. This time however, she was caught and passed in the last quarter-mile of that 1-1/16th miles race, finishing eighth, beaten 13-3/4 lengths. Prat is a former Champion Apprentice rider from France, who has been in the top five of the North American jockey standings in two of the last three years.
Cox’s stakes-placed filly is Gin Gin, who ran a distant second, 6-3/4 lengths back of West Sunset in the Rags to Riches. She is a daughter of Hightail, out of the Hard Spun mare Before You Know It, owned by Calumet Farm. She is a home-bred for Calumet in Kentucky and has earned $127,508.
The all-time winningest trainer in North American racing history, Steve Asmussen, has the next highest number of fillies nominated with four. His filly that has the strongest resume is Tx Women for Arts, a stakes winner. She is owned by J. Kirk and Judy Robison and was bred in Kentucky by Frank Garrison & NATO et al. The daughter of Practical Joke, out of the Flatter mare Proximity Bias was a stakes winner in her third start, winning the $100,000 Prairie Gold Lassie at Prairie Meadows on July 7. She had broken her maiden the race before at Horseshoe Indianapolis on June 15 by 5-1/2 lengths. Jockey Ricardo Santana was in the saddle for her stakes win. Since then, she has run third in the $50,000 E.L. Gaylord Stakes at Remington Park and second, beaten only a neck in the $100,000 Zia Princess Stakes in New Mexico. She was purchased by the Robisons at the Keeneland Association September Yearling Sale in 2022 for $55,000. She has earned $139,427.
Other stakes winners nominated to the Trapeze include:
Ice Cold (Indiana-bred daughter of Mitole, out of Street Sense mare Ice Women) won the $100,000 Miss Indiana Stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Oct. 4 by 10 lengths for trainer Ken McPeek and owner Tilted Shamrock Stables.
Local heroine Miss Code West (Oklahoma-bred by Code West, out of Kipling mare Inca Miss) won the $50,000 Slide Show Stakes on Nov. 10 by 5-1/4 lengths and the $76,000 Oklahoma Classics Lassie on Oct. 20 by two lengths. She has earned $95,694 for owners Jeffry and Julie Puryear and is undefeated after three starts, all in Oklahoma City.
Tapit Jenallie (Tapit, out of War Front mare Take Charge Tressa) won the $100,000 My Trusty Cat Stakes at Delta Downs by 5-1/2 lengths. She is undefeated in two starts, breaking her maiden at Remington Park on Sept. 30 by 7-3/4 lengths. Willis Horton Racing owns this filly and bred her in Kentucky. She is trained by Eddie Milligan Jr.
EXPECTED STARTER IN $300,000 SPRINGBOARD MILE, GLENGARRY, WORKS SIX FURLONGS AT OAKLAWN PARK
The undefeated and stakes-winning 2-year-old gray colt Glengarry, expected to make his next start in the $300,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park on Dec. 15, put in an easy workout on Saturday, Dec. 2 covering six furlongs. He breezed three-quarters at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. in 1:14.00 for trainer Doug Anderson and owners Anderson, Aaron Kennedy and Toby Joseph.
Glengarry, a juvenile son of Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief), out of the Tizway mare L.A. Way, is three-for-three to start his career, including two stakes wins – the $100,000 Iowa Cradle Stakes at Prairie Meadows and the $200,000 Bowman Mill Stakes at Keeneland.
Remington Park has seven race dates remaining in the 2023 Thoroughbred Season. Racing continues Wednesday-Saturday, Dec. 6-9 with the first race nightly at 7:07p.m.-Central.
Remington Park has provided more than $337 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park is home to the Springboard Mile, a Kentucky Derby points-qualifying race, on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. Parking and admission are always free. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
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