Trainer Brad Cox wins 3,000th race
Trainer Brad Cox earned his 3,000th career victory in North America on Friday at Belmont Park as Very Clever graduated at third asking in Race 1, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden special weight for juvenile fillies.
Dustin Dugas, Cox’s Belmont Park assistant, was on hand for the victory, and shared his pride in being part of the milestone.
“It’s great – it’s amazing,” Dugas said. “Brad is just a great horseman and it’s great to be on his team and learning every day from him. He’s a very humble guy. He’s always been very level with everything. He’s always said to never get too excited over the good or too mad over the bad. We try to keep that motto and keep on trucking.”
A Kentucky homebred for Godolphin, Very Clever was hard-ridden throughout by Manny Franco, who urged her from the outermost post 4 to chase the favored Mysticious through the opening quarter-mile in 22.23 seconds over the sloppy and sealed main track. Mysticious appeared home free after the half-mile in 44.95, but Franco implored his filly for more on the outside and wore down the pacesetter in the final 100 yards to win in a final time of 1:16.64.
“He [Franco] definitely earned every bit of that,” Dugas said. “It was a heads-up ride straight from the gate. He knew he had to be right on the favorite, and rightfully so. The favorite got away pretty good and I thought it was over with at the quarter pole and that horse was going to go on. Manny never stopped riding and definitely earned that.”
Franco said the race went to his expectations.
"She was cutting back from a mile. I expected to be chasing the speed, and she was coming and coming, so I was just hoping the horse in front would come back to me and that's what happened," Franco said.
Cox, 46, has captured six Grade 1s this year, including a pair in New York with Franco at the helm in the DraftKings Travers with Leading Change and the Spendthrift Farm Hopeful with The Good Life. Cox recently captured the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland with Further Ado, who also won the Grade 1 Blue Grass in April there.
Cox received the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, his wins included the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks with Shedaresthedevil and four Breeders’ Cup races.
To defend his title in 2021, Cox posted a career-best $33.1 million in yearly earnings, highlighted by wins in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Horse of the Year Knicks Go, Grade 1 Belmont Stakes and Travers with Essential Quality, and later being elevated to first in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby with Mandaloun following the disqualification of Medina Spirit.
The native of Louisville, Kentucky was raised just a few blocks from Churchill Downs and worked under Burk Kessinger, Jimmy Baker and Dallas Stewart before going out on his own in late 2004. He secured his first win with One Lucky Storm on December 4 of that year at Turfway Park.
Last year, Cox topped the North American earnings list with $30,267,435, which doesn’t include a victory in the $12 million Group 1 Dubai World Cup with Hit Show. The conditioner also took the earnings title in 2021 and 2023, and has trained seven Eclipse Award Champions, including British Idiom, Covfefe, Essential Quality, Idiomatic, Immersive, Knicks Go and Monomoy Girl.
Franco was aboard Immersive for each of her three Grade 1 wins in her Champion 2-Year-Old Filly season in 2024, and piloted Leading Change to victory in the Grade 1 DraftKings Travers this summer for Cox.
"It's a privilege to ride for him,” Franco said. “He's a guy that has a lot of good horses and important owners and I appreciate the opportunities I've been getting. He's a guy that can take you anywhere with his horses."
Dugas, who began working for Cox in 2017, said that the host of star pupils in the Cox barn have taken everyone involved on the journey of a lifetime.
“Monomoy Girl got us started, and that was a great time to have jumped on the team. When she came along, it got us really started on the big stage,” he said. “My go-to heart horse from the team was Knicks Go. It’s been a great journey for the whole team and it has taken us all around the world. It’s been a good ride.”
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