Brad Cox celebrated his fourth winner of a remarkable Breeders' Cup 2020 when Monomoy Girl proved a class apart in the Distaff.
The five-year-old daughter of Tapizar landed the 2018 renewal of this race at Churchill Downs before missing the whole of last year due to a bout of colic and injury.
However, she has returned as good as ever this summer and produced another stunning display under Florent Geroux, justifying strong market support with a commanding victory.
Despite being trapped four wide for much of the nine-furlong contest, Monomoy Girl was still travelling strongly when moving into the lead in the final stretch and though Valiance chased hard, she was always second best to the ultra-impressive winner.
Dunbar Road filled the placings back in third.
🇺🇸 Wow - Louisville local Brad Cox can do no wrong at Keeneland!
— Sporting Life (@SportingLife) November 7, 2020
🙌 The red-hot trainer bags his fourth #BC20 winner as Monomoy Girl repeat her 2018 success in the Distaff.pic.twitter.com/dumWDntovy
Cox said: “She is a champion. I’m very proud of her and I thought she was better than she had ever been coming into this and she proved that was her trip.
“It was a very fast time on a fast racetrack. She’s just a tremendous filly. I thought we were in a good spot at the eighth pole and Florent did a fantastic job.
“I’m very fortunate to be part of her – I think we’ve seen greatness.”
Monomoy Girl is due to go to the sales, but asked if that decision might be reversed, co-owned Sol Kumin said: “We will go out and enjoy tonight, get on the phone and put up a game plan and figure it all out, but ultimately it will be concentrating on what is best for her.”
Fellow co-owner Stewart Grant said: “Considering that she had some training issues, most people would have packed it in and sold her, but we love to race and with a very special team headed by Brad we were able to put her together again.
“Her career speaks for itself, with all the Grade One wins, two Breeders’ Cups and an Eclipse award.”
As for Swiss Skydiver, trainer Kenny McPeek said: “She stumbled at the start and Robby (Albarado) said after she left a little awkward that he kind of got stuck down inside and she was struggling down in there.
“But Monomoy Girl is a great filly, she’s deserves all the fame status.
“We’ll regroup and get a programme together for next year and come back at them again.”
He added: “There’s a very good chance (be back as a four-year-old). I’m a little worried about her finish, that’s uncharacteristic of her but we’ll go over her thoroughly and see what we’ve got.
“I think physically she’s probably fine but it wasn’t her day.”
