With the different running styles of his three entrants, trainer Brad Cox will need to be on top of his race-viewing game for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park.
Cox has entered a trio of top-level winners in the 1 1/8-mile test for fillies and mares 3-and-older with Idiomatic figuring to go to the lead, or be near the lead in a race with several early runners, while A Mo Reay and Wet Paint are both capable of pressing the pace or rating further back.
"They shouldn't get in each other's way too much," Cox said the morning of Nov. 1 near Clockers' Corner at Santa Anita.
Juddmonte homebred Idiomatic is the 5-2 morning-line favorite for Saturday's race. A bit of a throwback, Idiomatic already has raced eight times this year—posting victories in seven of those efforts. The towering 4-year-old Curlin filly has won four straight races, including grade 1 scores in her two most recent starts where she enjoyed a clear advantage throughout—the Personal Ensign Stakes in August at Saratoga Race Course and the Spinster Oct. 8 at Keeneland.
When Idiomatic started her season with an allowance-level win Jan. 4 on the all-weather track at Turfway Park, Cox had little inkling where this season would take the filly and he's been thrilled to be a part of it. Idiomatic would win three straight races at Turfway to start the year.
"This winter when she was doing her stuff at Turfway, I was pretty confident she could transfer that form over to the dirt," Cox said. "We brought her to Churchill Downs and she trained very well. We took a shot in the Ruffian (Stakes, G2 at Belmont Park), where we thought, 'Let's try to get some graded black type here. We did that (she finished second); goal was accomplished.
"We got her back home (to Churchill) and ran her in the Shawnee Stakes (G3). We felt confident the way she was training that she'd run big and she won that day. And the way she won, I thought she could win a grade 1."
That would soon play out as she won the Delaware Handicap (G2) at Delaware Park ahead of her two grade 1 scores.
"She kept on proving it as the year went on," Cox said.
While a steady racing schedule proved the right approach for Idiomatic, 3-year-old Wet Paint will enter the Distaff off an 11-week rest since finishing second in the Alabama Stakes (G1) Aug. 19 at Saratoga Race Course. Before that effort, the Godolphin homebred daughter of Blame won the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) July 22 at Saratoga. Wet Paint is 10-1 on the morning-line.
"She had been racing pretty steady since she started her racing career and there just wasn't a lot of options out there," Cox said. "The Cotillion Stakes (G1) would have been an option but Godolphin had Pretty Mischievious for that race. Aside from the Spinster at Keeneland—not that she couldn't get there—I just thought she was fit and if we give her the time and had her on a good steady work pattern leading up, we'd take a chance."
Cox's third Distaff entrant is A Mo Reay, who holds the distinction of owning a grade 1 win on the track with her narrow victory in the Beholder Mile in March. The 4-year-old Uncle Mo filly is campaigned by Haruya Yoshida and she is the first horse Cox has trained for the owner.
"I don't know if it's a positive but it's certainly not a negative," Cox said of the win on the track. "She was out here in March and ran a big race and since then she's been pretty steady. Physically she looks as amazing; she's doing as well as you can do."
Santa Anita Park, Saturday, November 4, 2023, Race 7Entries: Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Hoosier Philly (KY) Luis Saez 121 Thomas M. Amoss 20/1 2 2A Mo Reay (KY) Christophe Lemaire 124 Brad H. Cox 20/1 3 3Pretty Mischievous (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 121 Brendan P. Walsh 8/1 4 4Idiomatic (KY) Florent Geroux 124 Brad H. Cox 5/2 5 5Adare Manor (KY) Juan J. Hernandez 124 Bob Baffert 4/1 6 6Search Results (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 124 Chad C. Brown 5/1 7 7Wet Paint (KY) Flavien Prat 121 Brad H. Cox 10/1 8 8Randomized (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 121 Chad C. Brown 6/1 9 9Clairiere (KY) Joel Rosario 124 Steven M. Asmussen 4/1 10 10Desert Dawn (AZ) Hector Isaac Berrios 124 Philip D'Amato 20/1 11 11Le Da Vida (CHI) Vincent Cheminaud 124 Ignacio Correas, IV 20/1
