Oaklawn: First Mission makes amends, runs off with Essex

They came, they saw and, boy, did they ever conquer.

Godolphin, a worldwide breeding/racing juggernaut, two-time Eclipse Award winning trainer Brad Cox and nationally prominent jockey Florent Geroux teamed to sweep Oaklawn’s stakes doubleheader Saturday with even-money favorites.

Roughly a half-hour after Nash dominated the one-mile $200,000 Hot Springs Stakes for 3-year-olds, First Mission delivered an emphatic encore in the Grade 3, $600,000 Essex Handicap, run at nine furlongs for older horses.

The Essex was a bounce-back performance for First Mission ($4.20), who was exiting a disappointing ninth-place finish in his 4-year-old debut, the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) on Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park. A Grade 3 winner last year, First Mission was never involved in the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus and beaten 20 1/2 lengths.

In the Essex, previously run at 1 1/16 miles, First Mission was a forward factor from the start and stalked front-running Great Escape on the outside before taking command on the second turn. First Mission, who finished five lengths ahead of War Campaign, ran the distance in a meet-best 1:49.76 over a fast track.

Geroux said the victory was as easy as it looked for First Mission.

“Great trip from the outside," he said. "He broke good and I tried to establish a good position. Looked like there wasn’t a crazy amount of speed. And from the outside (post 8), I was able to get over pretty easily without asking him too much. From there, at the three-eighths pole, I could see everybody trying to ask their horses and from there he (First Mission) was just cruising. He won very easily.”

First Mission, a son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, won for the fourth time in seven starts to increase his career earnings to $822,110.