Brad Cox: Breeders' Cup Trainer Profile

Brad Cox has been training on his own for two decades and has established himself over the last ten years as one of the leading North American conditioners. After serving as an assistant trainer to Dallas Stewart, Brad Cox earned his first training win on his own in 2004. From there, it was ten years until he started his first horse in the Breeders’ Cup. His star has risen quickly after that, both in the end-of-year festival as well as major races like the Triple Crown series and the Kentucky Oaks. He has earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer twice: for the years 2020 and 2021.

Coming into the 2023 Breeders’ Cup on November 3 and 4 at Santa Anita Park, Cox has started 31 horses at the event and has a remarkable nine wins from so few starts. That includes a red-letter year in 2020 when he won four of the races: the Distaff with Monomoy Girl, the Dirt Mile with Knicks Go, the Juvenile with Essential Quality, and the Juvenile Fillies Turf with Aunt Pearl.

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Breeders’ Cup Classic

Brad Cox has won the Breeders’ Cup Classic once: in 2021, he trained winner Knicks Go. This is one of only three starters he has had in the race so far: Owendale was tenth in 2020, and the next year, Essential Quality finished third as the favorite behind his stablemate Knicks Go.

Saudi Crown

Three-year-old Saudi Crown bloomed late: while others in his class were making final preparations for the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown series, Saudi Crown was just getting started. He won his debut at Keeneland on April 16 and cleared his first-level allowance condition at Churchill Downs, both by open lengths and both at one turn. He missed by a nose in each of his first two graded-stakes tries, but earned his Grade 1 glory in the Pennsylvania Derby, going gate to wire and holding off Dreamlike by ½ length. He still has to prove himself at 1 ¼ miles, the classic distance, but he has proven his guts, and he could be in a good place if speed is playing well on Breeders’ Cup Saturday.

Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile

Knicks Go, part of Cox’s 2020 annus mirabilis, is his only Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner to date. However, he has started three other horses in the middle-distance dirt feature. His first-ever Breeders’ Cup starter, Carve, finished sixth behind Goldencents in this race. Owendale was fifth behind Knicks Go in 2020, and Cyberknife missed by a head to older divisional leader Cody’s Wish in 2022.

Zozos

After a second-place finish in the 2022 Risen Star, Zozos pressed on for the Kentucky Derby, where he finished tenth. At age four, however, this son of Munnings has made it clear that he belongs in shorter races. Over the summer, he won a pair of ungraded stakes at a mile, both over the one-turn configuration at Churchill Downs and the two-turn layout at Ellis Park. Though he came up empty at odds-on in the Monmouth Cup (G3), he earned his first graded-stakes win next out in the Ack Ack (G3), back over the one-turn mile at Churchill Downs.

To his credit, Zozos is able to win races from both on the pace or just off the running. However, he may be slightly better over the one-turn mile than two turns, a question since he will face top horses like Cody’s Wish at Santa Anita.

Breeders’ Cup Distaff

The Distaff is the only Breeders’ Cup race that Cox has won more than once. He won both the 2018 and 2020 editions with 2018 Kentucky Oaks winner Monomoy Girl. His only other starter in the race was another Kentucky Oaks winner: Shedaresthedevil, who ran sixth behind colossal long shot Marche Lorraine in 2021.

A Mo Reay

Among Brad Cox’s likely Distaff starters, A Mo Reay is the third-stringer. To her credit, she won the Beholder Mile (G1) at Santa Anita, so she has proven she likes the surface at the host track. And, she did so, showing tactical speed. However, she was facing a generally less difficult field that day, and other Breeders’ Cup Distaff contenders like Search Results and Randomized have had this daughter of Uncle Mo’s number in subsequent races.

Idiomatic

Idiomatic, being by Curlin out of Lockdown (a multiple graded-stakes placed full sister to Eclipse Award winner Close Hatches), was bred to be a good one. On the track, she is proving just as good as owner-breeders Juddmonte likely hoped. She was a little slow to get going: at age three, she only started three times: she won her debut at Turfway, finished third in an allowance at Churchill Downs, went on the shelf for seven months, and then returned to finish third in an allowance at Turfway. However, she has really caught fire at four.

Idiomatic is seven-for-eight this year, with her only blemish being a second-place finish in the Ruffian (G2) in May during Belmont Stakes week. That was her graded stakes debut, and since then she has risen to the top echelon of the division. Though both of her Grade 1 wins in the Personal Ensign and the Spinster came on the front end, she also proved in the Delaware Handicap (G2) that she can overcome a bad start, rally from off the pace, and win anyway. All these tools make her a major contender.

Wet Paint

Off a trio of dominant victories on the Oaklawn spur of the Kentucky Oaks trail, she was the favorite at Churchill Downs, though she was outfinished in the end and finished fourth. Since then, she has held her own in stakes company: she finished second behind wire-to-wire winners in both the Monomoy Girl (behind Hoosier Philly) and the Alabama (G1) (behind Randomized), but between those starts, she rallied from last to win the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) by a neck at Saratoga. Watch the pace scenario and how the track is playing: she could be an interesting price option if a pace collapse is possible and the track is playing fairly on Breeders’ Cup Saturday.

Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint

Cox has started four horses in the Filly and Mare Sprint, though only one of them has hit the board. The one who did hit the board was a memorable one: the wildly popular Covfefe, star of the North American female sprint division through that season, won as the 3-2 favorite in 2019.

Matareya

In the early stages of the season, Matareya looked like she might be the breakout star of the filly and mare sprint division. She started her season with a close second behind Wicked Halo in the Matron at Oaklawn, then turned the tables on that foe (and upset a trip-troubled Goodnight Olive) in the Derby City Distaff (G1). However, she was a well-beaten third behind Society at odds-on in the Chicago (G3), and then was another no-threat third behind Echo Zulu and Goodnight Olive in the Ballerina (G1). This means she will have to up her game significantly to be a threat to more than the lower fringes of exotics.

Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint

The first two starters Cox brought to this race, Green Mask in 2016 and Will Call in 2018, both finished fifth. His third and most recent, Caravel, did far better last year at Keeneland. Dismissed at 42-1, Caravel bounced out to the lead and held off a cavalry charge of Europeans to win by half a length. Caravel returns for a repeat attempt this year; if she wins, she will join Mizdirection (2012-2013) and Stormy Liberal (2017-2018) as horses to win this race twice.

Caravel

This tough gray mare proved her long-shot victory at Keeneland was no fluke when she rattled off wins in the Shakertown (G2), Unbridled Sidney, and Jaipur (G1) to begin her season. She finished only fourth in the Troy (G3) at Saratoga, though the soft turf makes that an easy throwaway. Her defeat in the Franklin (G2) against fillies over good ground at Keeneland raises questions, though: she so often finds her best at Keeneland, and she was outfinished by Tony Ann, a horse with no previous top-level experience. It might be that Tony Ann is just getting good now, but given that Caravel will be one of the shorter prices in her title defense, it is worth being skeptical on her form.

Breeders’ Cup Juvenile

Cox has only run two horses in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He won with his first-ever entrant, eventual champion Essential Quality in 2020. He then ran Verifying in the 2022 edition off of a second-place finish in the Champagne. Verifying finished only sixth behind Forte after a rough beginning, and has gone on to prove he does his best at one turn.

Timberlake

He was well-beaten at even money on debut, but things have gone much better since then. He wired a seven-furlong maiden special at Ellis over eventual Iroquois (G3) winner West Saratoga, was only outkicked by long shot Nutella Fella in the Hopeful (G1), and then found his own Grade 1 glory when he stretched to a mile in the Champagne (G1). He has the tactical speed to work out a trip, and his pedigree suggests he should be able to handle at least a middle-distance two-turn trip like this. He will just have to make sure he starts well, something that has been a hit-or-miss proposition.

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