Bonny South flies past Finite for Fair Grounds Oaks upset

Last time on the Kentucky Oaks trail at Fair Grounds, trainer Brad Cox saw his previously undefeated champion British Idiom finish second to Finite in the Feb. 15 Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2).

Two days later, the connections of Cox and Juddmonte Farms also suffered through the tragic loss of Taraz, another unbeaten filly who died as a result of injuries in a training incident.

On Saturday, Cox and Juddmonte teamed up for a return to the winner's circle in the 3-year-old fillies division when Bonny South went last to first for an upset in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks.

Under jockey Florent Geroux, the daughter of Munnings drove down the center of the track, punching her ticket to the postponed Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs.

“I guess she’s in the Kentucky Oaks," Cox said. "We’ve just got to figure out how to get to Sept. 4, I believe it is. It’s a long way off and we’ll just see how things play out the rest of the year. But I’m very, very proud of her.”

Bonny South ended Finite's five-race winning streak only after the favorite chased the pace, ranged up three-wide off the turn and took the lead. Rather than go on to win, as she did in the Silverbulletday and Rachel Alexandra earlier this season at Fair Grounds, Finite tired to finish fourth.

Behind Bonny South, Tempers Rising ran second and Antoinette third in a field of six.

The Juddmonte homebred Bonny South’s final time for 1 1/16 miles was 1:43.57. She entered off an allowance victory over Cox stablemate Shedaresthedevil, who next out took Oaklawn Park’s Honeybee (G3).

“She’s a filly that just doesn’t want to be rushed off her feet early,” Cox said. “She’s going to come with a run. She’s obviously a very, very nice filly that was a workmate to an unbelievable filly that we lost earlier in the year. This filly has just stepped up and really gotten good.”

The Fair Grounds Oaks is the first race of the prep season awarding Kentucky Oaks qualifying points on a 100-40-20-10 scale. Churchill Downs hasn’t yet added new races to the Oaks trail, but Bonny South’s 100 will most likely be plenty to make the starting gates on the first Friday in September.

Finite entered with 70 points and picked up 10 more Saturday to now sit second in the standings with 80. Tempers Rising (40 points earned Saturday, 47 overall) is seventh on the Kentucky Oaks table, with Antionette (20, 20) alongside three other fillies in a tie for eighth-most points.

Tempers Rising improved to second off finishes of third in the Silverbulletday and fourth in the Rachel Alexandra. Dallas Stewart trains the Bayern filly, who’s well-positioned on the Kentucky Oaks trail despite owning only one win in eight starts.

“When I got to the quarter pole and then I got in line with the favorite I thought, ‘Hey I got a chance to win,’” Tempers Rising jockey Julien Leparoux said. “She ran a big race.”

The Bill Mott trainee Antoinette hit the board in the first start of her 3-year-old campaign. She entered off a layoff dating back to a win last December in Aqueduct’s black-type Tepin Stakes.