Cox Trainees Primed for Saturday

With 15 races carded for Louisiana Derby Day at the Fair Grounds, Saturday afternoon will be a busy time for many local horsemen, and it is arguably trainer Brad Cox who holds one of the strongest hands heading into the New Orleans oval's signature day. Left with little time to draw satisfaction from saddling Call Pat (Lawyer Ron) to a win in Oaklawn's GII Azeri S. this past Saturday, the 36-year-old filled the Fair Grounds entry box with a quartet of stakes runners and an intriguing import making her first start for the barn.

Cox is set to send out the unbeaten Dazzling Gem (Misremembered) in the $1-million GII Louisiana Derby off a pair of two-turn wins at Oaklawn Park. A $95,000 Keeneland September yearling acquisition by Steve Landers Racing, the dark bay completed his serious preparation for the tilt with a five-furlong breeze in 1:00.80 [5/14] in Hot Springs Monday, leading his trainer to believe that he is ready to climb the class ladder.

“He worked great [Monday] at Oaklawn, and if all is well he will ship [Tuesday],” Cox said. “I think he's ready to take the next step. I always say when you have a 3-year-old this early in the year who has already won two races, you have to look at stakes. The Rebel was on our radar, but we had a little setback with a minor foot issue, and this was the next thing.”

While the GII Louisiana Derby is ostensibly a 'final' prep race for the GI Kentucky Derby, Cox said his promising sophomore may still get multiple chances to qualify for the Run for the Roses.

“We'll see how it goes Saturday,” he added. “We may even look at the [Apr. 16 GI] Arkansas Derby after that–he may be one of the few horses who gets a shot at running in two 100-point races.”

If Dazzling Gem is a runner on the rise in the Cox barn, the young trainer will rely on a pair of stalwarts in contentious turf stakes Saturday. Wentworth Brochu LLC's four-time graded stakes winner Chocolate Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) seeks to defend his title in the GII Mervin H. Muniz Jr. H., while Richard and Bertram Klein's Cash Control (Pioneerof the Nile) aims to notch her third stakes win of the meet in the New Orleans Ladies S. Chocolate Ride, winner of the Jan. 16 GIII Colonel E.R. Bradley H. and the Feb. 20 GIII Fair Grounds H. in his last two starts, prepped for the Muniz with a four-panel breeze over the turf course Monday.

“We're really positive, he had a great workout [Monday],” Cox said of the gelding, who he claimed for $40,000 in November 2014. “Florent [Geroux] worked him on the turf course and everything went really well. He's on his 'A' game and it looks like it's a little bit deeper of a race than the last two–and it's supposed to be as a Grade II with a bigger purse. But I expect him to run really big.”

Meanwhile, Cash Control notched a hard-fought score in the Daisy Devine S. over the Fair Grounds lawn Feb. 20 and continues to train well, according to Cox. A Klein homebred, the 5-year-old mare is a half-sister to multiple stakes winners Country Day (Speightstown), Good Deed (Broken Vow), and Due Date (El Prado {Ire}), as well as undefeated Cash Back (Congrats)–who is also currently in training with Cox.

“[Cash Control] is doing really well,” Cox said. “She breezed [Sunday] and had a great work last week. She's a dual-surface mare, but she might be a little better on the grass. She really had to dig in and fight last time to get the job done, and she showed a lot of grit. This is a tough $50,000 race, I'll tell you that. But she's doing very well and is ready to run.”

Although Cox has a number of blacktype runners set for this weekend, the trainer also has his mind on bigger things for Swift Thoroughbreds and Bradley Thoroughbreds' Sweet Acclaim (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), who makes her first start since August 2014 in an allowance race Saturday. The bay, who began her career competing in England, was privately purchased and made five Stateside starts for Chad Brown, including a runner-up finish in the GIII Appalachian S. and a fourth-place run in the GII Lake George S. Transferred to Cox midway through an extended layoff, the conditioner said Sweet Acclaim is training forwardly and ready to kick off her 2016 season.

“Pete Bradley sent her to us last summer,” Cox explained. “We pretty much had her ready to run, but she had a little setback that required time. We gave her the time, brought her back, and she's just been training outstandingly. It's hard to believe she's a first-level allowance mare, but she is. We'll see what happens, but hopefully this is just the first step to some bigger and better things down the road. The condition is there, so you might as well take advantage of it to get her back into the swing of things with her being off so long. Hopefully we're on to graded stakes in the near future.”

Extra Credit (Proud Citizen), third last out in the Black Gold S. on turf Feb. 27, rounds out the Cox contingent with an entry in the Crescent City Derby for Louisiana-breds.