Kentucky Derby trail: Cox says methods are ever changing

New Orleans

With Timberlake already assured of a place in Kentucky Derby 2024 and Catching Freedom trying to nail down his invitation via Saturday’s Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby, trainer Brad Cox is taking a familiar route back to his native Louisville.

But even though this will be only his fourth Derby, the two-time Eclipse Award winner already is living a changing trend on how to get to America’s biggest race.

Click here for Fair Grounds entries and results.

“You have to totally have your horse primed and ready the months of February and March and April just with the (qualifying) points system,” he said Thursday morning outside his barns at Fair Grounds. “It really doesn’t matter what you do as a 2-year-old. There’s just not enough points in regards to getting them to the starting gate.”

Before 2013, graded-stakes earnings were the prism through which horses qualified for the Kentucky Derby. Those $275,000 that Timberlake earned last year for winning the Champagne (G1) and the $100,000 for finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile would have given him a big leg up back then. Those results were not worthless in the new system, but they were not as influential as they used to be.

It is a little like the regular season in the NBA. Load management early is more important than those wins and losses, especially if spring means a long and grueling playoff run. For Derby hopefuls, a 2-year-old campaign may as well be the in-season tournament. Races like the Louisiana Derby are the playoffs.

“If you had a horse you think is a Derby horse, there no sense in getting them revved up too much as a 2-year-old,” Cox said.

In the case of Timberlake, Cox said the 3 1/2-month break that followed five races as a 2-year-old was the perfect ingredient before a comeback victory Feb. 24 in the Rebel (G2).

“He bounced back, and he’s been great,” Cox said. “He’s getting into the Derby mostly on what he did in the Rebel and, honestly, hopefully, next Saturday in the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1).”

It will be a little different for Catching Freedom, the 4-1 second choice behind 3-1 morning-line favorite Track Phantom in the Louisiana Derby. He made a winning debut in a one-turn mile last fall at Churchill Downs. After a fourth-place finish in an allowance race, the Constitution colt owned by the Albaugh family got a nearly two-month break before his New Year’s Day triumph in the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn. It was another 1 1/2 months before he finished third in the Fair Grounds slop in the Feb. 17 running of the Risen Star (G2).

Cox wants to see Flavien Prat, the fourth rider in as many races, get Catching Freedom closer to the early lead than he was when he was eighth after the first quarter-mile last month.

“Maybe try to be a little bit closer,” Cox said, knowing Track Phantom is likely to set the pace. “There wasn’t a tremendous amount of pace last time, either. The track was pretty gooey there on Risen Star day, late in the day especially, but maybe try to be a little bit closer than we were last time might help us. We can’t be toward the tail end with no pace and expect to close.”

Catching Freedom mathematically will clinch a place in the Kentucky Derby with a top-two finish Saturday. Even a third-place result should get him there. Then it is a matter of how to train him the six weeks up to his run for the roses.

“You’re just going to work another time or two,” Cox said. “I don’t think (the extra time) means a tremendous amount. At this point you’re just hoping to run well here Saturday.”

It was not that long ago when Cox might have considered squeezing in another start between the Louisiana and Kentucky derbies.

“It is a lot different than it used to be,” he said. “You’d run here, then up in the Blue Grass (G1) or Arkansas Derby. We did that a few years back (in 2016) with Dazzling Gem. He ran (third) here, and then he ended up (three weeks later finishing fourth) in the Arkansas Derby. Now that these races kind of changed on the calendar with the Arkansas Derby a week later, you don’t have that option.”

For young colts, it is a big ask. It worked for Cox when Mandaloun was promoted to the 2021 victory that made him the first Louisville native to train a Kentucky Derby winner. The keys were durability. And timing.

“You have to have a tremendous amount of stamina,” Cox said, “but obviously, you have to have them primed and ready in February.”