Over the last five years, Brad Cox has trained 97 3-year-old turf winners and 445 3-year-old dirt winners. He’s won 111 sophomore dirt stakes during that span, 21 such turf stakes. But this summer, Cox packs a potent one-two punch with 3-year-old grass fillies. About a month after Fionn captured the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational, chasing down divisional leader Nitrogen, Destino D’Oro turned in an excellent performance winning the Pucker Up by almost four lengths on Aug. 3 at Ellis Park.
Destino D’Oro got an 85 Beyer Speed Figure compared to a 91 for Fionn but might well prove a more formidable filly than the number suggests. A three-time winner from just four starts, her lone defeat coming by two noses in the Jessamine Stakes last fall at Keeneland, Destino D’Oro, after racing as a one-run closer her first three outings, suddenly turned into a pace presser in the Pucker Up. She sat just behind the pacesetter and still finished like a freight train.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Cox said. “I figured she’d break and settle and come with her run. She showed a new dimension and she’s lightly raced. I think she’s for real.”
Which is the superior filly? We will soon find out, since Cox has both Fionn and Destino D’Oro aimed toward the $2 million Dueling Grounds Oaks on Sept. 10. Destino D’Oro debuted last summer at Kentucky Downs and won a one-mile maiden race going away.
While the Saratoga-based Fionn soon will head to Kentucky, Cox has several prominent runners making the reverse journey.
Patch Adams, working steadily and well at Churchill, returns to Saratoga, where he won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens in June, for the Grade 1, $500,000 Allen Jerkens on Aug. 23. Verifire, a winner in his first three starts, most recently capturing the listed Maxfield at Churchill with a 95 Beyer, will start in the same race.
Most Wanted, second to Fierceness in the Grade 2 Alysheba in May and a galloping winner June 1 of a one-turn mile Churchill allowance, where he earned a 101 Beyer, remains on course for the Grade 1, $500,000 Forego, also on Aug. 23.
First Mission, most recently third in the Stephen Foster, also heads east, but he’s going to Monmouth Park, where he’ll start as the likely overwhelming favorite in the Iselin Stakes on Aug. 16.
Disco Time isn’t likely to hit the road, and Cox isn’t yet sure where he’ll start, but the 3-year-old, unbeaten after three races, has worked steadily at Churchill and is just about ready to race for the first time since winning the Lecomte on Jan. 18 at Fair Grounds.
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