Monomoy Girl wins 2018 debut in Rachel Alexandra Stakes
Monomoy Girl overcame the widest post, a
slow break and drifting out in the stretch to live up to her 4-5 favoritism in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, drawing off to pick up 50 points toward qualifying for the 2018 Kentucky Oaks.
It was the 3-year-old debut for the Brad Cox-trained Tapizar filly, who wrapped up her juvenile season with a win in the Rags to Riches Stakes and a runner-up effort in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes.
Now, she's all but assured a spot in the gate on the first Friday in May at Churchill Downs.
“She proved today — she acts like she can get the distance,” said trainer Brad Cox. “She’s still obviously a little bit of a funny filly to deal with, as you could see when [jockey] Florent [Geroux] hit her left-handed there. But she’s learning and she’s very talented. We’re happy to have her.”
The Mark Casse duo of Wonder Gadot and Heavenly Love broke well, but it was Testing One Two and Classy Act near the rail who took over by the first turn in front of Wonder Gadot. Monomoy Girl was back in last.
Classy Act had the advantage when they turned for home after setting opening fractions of 23.58 and 46.83 seconds under Javier Castellano, but Monomoy Girl made a strong move to close through the turn. Geroux and his filly came bounding down the stretch to pass Classy Act, drifted out and still managed to win by 2 ½ lengths.
Monomoy Girl completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.26. Classy Act settled for second while Wonder Gadot picked up third.
“We learned a lot about her today — that she’ll overcome things, dirt in the face and passing horses,” Cox said of Monomoy Girl. “It was probably a good thing she got away slow. I wouldn’t have expected that. I’ve been looking at the race for over a week and thought we’d be right there setting off Javier (Castellano’s) filly (Classy Act). It worked out perfect. She was obviously ready to run. She put in a great effort. We’re really pleased with her. We’ll get her plenty of time to recover. Obviously the Oaks is the goal, so we’ll kind of work backward from there.”
The Rachel Alexandra was the fourth win in five starts for Monomoy Girl, and the win boosted her earnings to $256,550. Owned by Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, LLC, the Elkstone Group LLC and Bethlehem Stables LLC, the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks or the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland will likely be Monomoy Girl’s next start.