Even with champion Monomoy Girl sidelined — she will miss a defense of her title in the Nov. 2 Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff — trainer Brad Cox and many of Monomoy Girl’s owners including Stuart Grant might be headed to California with a filly that ranks as an exciting Breeders’ Cup contender: British Idiom.
With a 6 1/2-length victory over Perfect Alibi in the $400,000, Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes Oct. 4 at Keeneland, the Cox-trained British Idiom earned a “Win and You’re In” berth in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 1 at Santa Anita Park. And, she’ll go there with title hopes on the line.
Her limited record stands up next to just about anyone in the division. A first-out winner of her debut at Saratoga Race Course by 3 1/2 lengths Aug. 15, she improved to 2-for-2 in taking the Alcibiades in her first route, this race coming even more easily than the first and providing her sire, Flashback , with his first black-type stakes winner.
Before a crowd of 16,427 on opening day at Keeneland, jockey Javier Castellano kept British Idiom perched just off the pace in third as longshot Spitefulness sped to the lead through quarter-mile fractions of :23.73, :47.27, and 1:13.11 in the 1 1/16-mile dirt race. Then, as the field left the second turn, it was time to move.