Brad Cox already has his name immortalized as a Kentucky Derby (G1) winning trainer.
He reached that lofty peak when Mandaloun was finally confirmed the winner of the 2021 Run for the Roses. Mandaloun was awarded the victory when Medina Spirit, first under the wire, was disqualified for a failed post-race drug test. It was the second medication disqualification in Derby history, along with Dancer’s Image (1968).
After a series of appeals and court cases, Mandaloun was officially crowned the winner, and Cox got his name inscribed in the record book.
While a win is a win, the backdoor nature of the victory, achieved through a ruling, tarnished the luster of the achievement.
“I mean, like I've said, we've won races that are more valuable than the Kentucky Derby between the Dubai World Cup, the Breeders' Cup Classic, but I think the Derby, it's obviously a big dream of mine and a dream of a lot of people,” Cox said.
“But I think that that's what it's all about, the experience and the thrill of victory with that particular race. And obviously, there was no thrill of victory when you're awarded a race to a disqualification. So, yeah, looking, hopefully looking forward to that. It'd be great if it's next week. And it would certainly feel like the first Derby for sure.”
Cox, 46, is back in the Derby this year with a chance to score a clean win. He will saddle three of the top contenders Saturday in Commandment (6-1), Further Ado (6-1), and Fulleffort (20-1). Post time is 6:57 p.m. ET.
Commandment tops the Derby leaderboard with 150 qualifying points. Further Ado sits second with 135, and Fulleffort is fifth with 110 to give Cox three of the top five. That’s a lot of horsepower.
“Commandment has shown he can handle traffic and run inside or outside of horses,” Cox said. “From there, he should have a chance to save some ground in the first turn.”
A son of champion sire Into Mischief, Commandment worked 5 furlongs in 1:01.40 on Saturday (April 25). Luis Saez will ride and leave from post 6.
“Further Ado should be able to work out a good stalking trip from there and settle into the race,” Cox said after his Blue Grass Stakes (G1) winner drew an outside post 18. “With Fulleffort, hopefully he can work his way over a bit down the lane, save some ground and make that late run we’ve seen from him.”
Fulleffort, winner of the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3), drew the far outside post 20.
Another Derby win seems an eventual certainty for the Louisville native. If not this year, then sometime in the near future.
Cox, who grew up a few blocks away from Churchill Downs, has been a racetracker from the time he was in short pants. His father started taking him to the track when he was 4 or 5 years old, and he’s been there ever since.
He got his first on-track job as a hotwalker at 13, and he opened his own stable at 24.
From cheap claimers at the start, Cox has built one of the most powerful stables in the sport with the support of high-profile clients like the Dubai royal family, Juddmonte Farms, and Spendthrift Farm that provide a steady stream of well-bred horses built for the Derby challenge.
“Yeah, you know, it's, first of all, I think in order to be competitive in this three-year-old division, you have to have a lot of colts,” Cox said. “That's very important to have a lot of stock, a lot of talent. It's not as clear a picture, I think, as you would think.”
This will be the sixth straight year Cox has at least one Derby runner. He has joined the ranks of trainers you expect to see in the race every year.
It is the changing of the guard. D. Wayne Lukas, the dean of Triple Crown-winning trainers with 15 victories in the series, died last year. Yes, Bob Baffert is still in the mix. Baffert, who swept the Triple Crown with American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018), doesn’t have the same firepower these days.
The interesting hook to the Cox story is that Baffert trained Medina Spirit, the disqualified horse who gave Cox his Derby win.
Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher are always in the Derby mix, a select circle of trainers that now includes Cox.
Let’s take a look at the Cox Derby trio:
Could be the Derby post time favorite (Renegade is the 4-1 morning-line favorite, with Commandment and Further Ado both at 6-1). He has won four in a row, including a nose win over The Puma in the Florida Derby (G1). He does have a flair for the dramatic. The prior win was by a neck over Chief Wallabee in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2).
“He’s a really laid-back horse who is easy to train,” Cox said. “I don’t know if he’ll be a Kentucky Derby favorite, but he can be a Kentucky Derby winner. That’s all I’m looking for. There are 19 other horses and only one Derby winner. He’s definitely capable of winning the race.”
Burst on the scene last fall with a 20-length maiden win. His first start this year was a close second to The Puma in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3), which was the tune-up for an 11-length route in the Blue Grass Stakes.
Got here with a victory in the Jeff Ruby Stakes over the synthetic track at Turfway Park. Can he be as proficient on dirt? That’s one of the biggest mysteries of the race.
“Yeah. I mean, you know, obviously a little bit of the unknown,” Cox said. “We've had some successful forces that have come off the synthetic from Turfway in years past. Encino won the Lexington after winning the Battaglia as a three-year-old a couple of years ago. Obviously, Final Gambit is the most recent horse we've had from last year that was able to sort of run fourth in the Derby off winning the Ruby.”
The Derby remains the sport’s biggest prize, and the toughest race of the year, with horses arriving from all corners to contest a congested 20-horse field where strange things can and do happen.
“I think it's very competitive,” Cox said. “I think it's a really good group of horses. I think there's a lot of talent, obviously, you know, coming from different regions, where it's California, Florida, Louisiana, and New York. I do feel like the horses in Florida were definitely the strongest region this year. I mean, you could kind of put Further Ado in that group, obviously. He trained there, made his only start prior to the Blue Grass at Tampa, obviously, Commandment had three races in South Florida this winter.
“But you know, it's a very good group and, fortunately, to have three of, I think, the top five-point horses leaderboard. So, I think we're in a good spot, and I think it's a solid group of three-year-olds.”
The big Derby weekend for Cox starts Friday with the Kentucky Oaks (G1) for the fillies, where he has Prom Queen (8-1).
With live contenders in the two biggest races that weekend, the Louisville native son could be the toast of the town.
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
