Barn Tour: Cox on his best hope for the Kentucky Derby
- Gerald Bennett (1/7)
- Mark Glatt (1/6)
- J.R. Caldwell (1/5)
- Peter Eurton (12/30)
- Kenny McPeek (12/29)
- Shane Wilson (12/22)
- Rob Atras (12/21)
- Wesley Ward (12/20)
Last spring, Brad Cox had won an Eclipse Award as the best trainer of 2020 and had three Kentucky Derby hopefuls: Essential Quality, Mandaloun and Caddo River.
Now, he again is an Eclipse Award candidate, but he's "a little light this year on the Derby-slash-Oaks trail, to say the least," he told Horse Racing Nation Sunday. "Definitely not like last year."
Las Vegas might think that Cox has 15-plus Derby contenders, but for now, "Cyberknife's the only one," Cox said.
But then he added, "I'm not sure right now. It's still a little early, but nothing's jumped up."
Cyberknife is a Gun Runner colt who broke his maiden on third try, going 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds on Dec. 26. "He's doing good," Cox said. "Looking at an allowance race, Southwest or the Lecomte. No real feel on which race we're going in yet, but something like that. One of those three."
Cyberknife worked four furlongs in 48.8 seconds Saturday at Fair Grounds.
Las Vegas also likes Rocket Dawg, a Classic Empire colt who graduated on debut and then finished sixth in the Dec. 26 Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds. The chart said he "rankly fought restraint through the first turn" of the 1 1/16-mile race and "remained unsettled" in the early part of the backstretch, though he did settle a bit before fading.
"He didn't run too good," Cox said. "We're just backing up on him a little bit. Don't know where we're going to land with him right now."
Cox said he has yet to make a plan for several other of his 2-year-olds, including In Dreams, Quick to Blame, Home Brew, Page One and Kaely's Brother.
On Sunday, HRN reported where things stand with Cox's older stars, Knicks Go, Mandaloun and Shedaresthedevil. (Click here for that report.)
Among his other older horses, Cox said Wells Bayou is "on the comeback trail." Unraced since finishing third in the April 10 Oaklawn Mile, the 5-year-old had been working at Keeneland.
And Caddo River, who went 1-for-5 last year with a second-place finish in the Arkansas Derby, crossed the line first in a December allowance at Oaklawn but was DQ'd to second for interference. "He ran good," Cox said, but he has not decided on his next race.