2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies
Friday, November 1, 2019
- Brad Cox
- Stuart Grant
THE MODERATOR: Brad, let’s start with you. Your impression of the way that British Idiom had to run this race and be challenged a few times. Talk about how it unfolded.
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BRAD COX: It was an exciting race, obviously, but got bumped around a little bit, it looked like, going into the first turn. On the back side I thought she might have been struggling with the track a little bit. I looked up and saw it was 22 and 3 in the opening quarter, and maybe a little bit further off of it than I thought, but going that fast, we’re in good hands with Javier. He just kept her busy the whole way up the back side.
He thought at the 3/8 pole when he kind of tipped her out, he said he gradually started picking up, he thought he had a big shot to win the race. So it was exciting. Glad she was able to get there.
And filly ran second ran a tremendous race. Second race of her career to run that well and to be up front and do a lot of dirty work, she’s a very special filly. And British Idiom, she had to fight to get by her. Very proud of her.
THE MODERATOR: Very good. One of the stories with this filly will of course be that she was purchased for only $40,000. Is this really for — this is for any of you that want to take it, but just talk about how you ended up partners in this horse and the job that Liz did picking her out.
STUART GRANT: Liz has been buying horses for us for the last bunch of years. Stuart, Mike Dubb, Mike Caruso, and I have been partners on lots and lots of horses. Have a great relationship, great partnership, and we have had some really good success together.
We’re pretty tight with our budget, generally, when we’re buying horses, and Liz has been able to do just a tremendous job with not unlimited funds. And to be able to buy this filly today after Monomoy Girl not that long ago is just tremendous. And she’s just extremely talented, and we’re happy she’s on our team.
THE MODERATOR: Brad, there was a story that Evan Hammonds wrote that I was checking out that you mentioned that you saw her at one point walk by you and said, She looks like Monomoy Girl. Can you tell us what those comparisons were, what you found striking that made you say that.
BRAD COX: Honestly, I don’t remember saying it.
(Laughter.)
THE MODERATOR: It’s a great story for today, so let’s go with it.
BRAD COX: Yeah, I’m going to run with it.
We were at Paul Sharp’s farm in August, saw some buddies, and Liz and I think Blake, my son, was with me as well, and we watched several two-year-olds train one morning, and they said I made that comment. So like you said, I’m going to stick with it. Sounds good.
But they do have some similarities as far as their mindset. Like in the paddock, they’re very quiet fillies, take it all in. But when they get on the track, they kind of — they — this filly was a little more on her toes today as opposed to her first two starts. She was really quiet at Saratoga and came Keeneland. You kind of wondered, like, is she okay. Javier’s taken her away in all three races and warmed her up well, and she responds to that.
But I think that’s the one similarity with the two fillies — well, obviously they’re the same color, but they’re — she’s — just her mind. She’s got a very good mind and knows when to turn it on and off. Monomoy was just like that.
STUART GRANT: I think what Brad also said was that he was having a flashback to Monomoy Girl and then we realized that this is flashbacks only.
BRAD COX: Yeah.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?
Q. Brad, what are the challenges of coming out here first of all and dealing with this everything you have to deal with when you make a trip like this and how much do you think this horse’s experience at this distance translated to today?
BRAD COX: Well she handled everything really well. She, obviously it
was the first time she had ever been put on a plane, but when we took
her to Saratoga her last work was at Churchill from the gate and I can’t
remember the exact number of days, but leading up to that first race at
Saratoga we felt very confident with her, just based off that last gate
work, that she would be able to, that she would perform well, as long
as she took to the track at Saratoga, she did.
And then obviously the race at Keeneland she shipped in the day before the race, we scored her, she went to the track. She did train at Keeneland early in her career as a two-year-old and then was transferred to Ellis and then Churchill and then on to Saratoga.
But that’s one thing with our two-year-old program we put horses different places, we’re not scared to ship a horse, put them on a plane, put them on a van, whatever. Good horses overcome a lot and so obviously this is a good horse and she’s, like I said, this filly trained at Keeneland, Ellis, Churchill, shipped to Saratoga, back to Churchill, shipped to Keeneland and then on a plane to California.
So we put these two-year-olds through a lot, we want to put them through a lot in order to build a tough horse mentally and physically. So I didn’t think it would be an issue at all as far as coming out here.
Q. Not to make you look ahead immediately after a big win, but it always does come up in these press conferences, looking ahead to the spring and the Kentucky Oaks what would be the route that you might want to take to get there?
BRAD COX: We’ll
talk it over with the team. I mean, obviously, the Fairgrounds has
produced a lot of Kentucky Oaks winners the last few years, and it’s
great surface. I think it will be a similar campaign to what we did with
Monomoy Girl, but once again we’ll talk it over with the group and put a
game plan together and she will get a chance to relax a little bit
after this for sure and come up with a game plan for 2020.
Q. You mentioned how impressed you with Donna Veloce and when you saw it was going to be just those two were you surprised that it was as close as it was considering it was, as you said, really a new experience for her.
BRAD COX: Well,
when we finally got by her I thought we were going to put her away and
we didn’t. So she battled back. So, I mean, I was super impressed with
her, with Donna Veloce and she’s got a big future ahead of her.
Q. Quickly, could you explain the name and how that came about?
STUART GRANT: Sure.
Everybody loves a good British idiom, don’t they? And so we had
friends, some English ones, and they seemed to talk in constant British
idiom and I could bang on for donkey’s years, but that would just prove
my point that everybody loves a good British idiom.
Q. Brad, you talked about building blocks and getting your horses ready. How good is it to know that she can be looked in the eye and still respond the way she did down the stretch?
BRAD COX: It
gives you confidence moving forward because it, hopefully, it’s not the
last time that we’re in that position. So, no, she’s three for three,
she’s done nothing wrong and taken her show on the road every time. So
she’s a tremendous filly and hopefully we can, like I said, give her a
little break and get her ready for 2020.
