Champions Monomoy Girl, Essential Quality Return To Fair Grounds To Prepare For Next Engagements Sponsored by:
Monomoy Girl and Florent Geroux winning the Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn
Champions Monomoy Girl and Essential Quality left Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., late Tuesday morning after successful 2021 debuts over the weekend for Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox.
Assistant trainer Jorgito Abrego, who oversees Cox s Oaklawn division, said Monomoy Girl and Essential Quality were vanned back to Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La., where they have been based and trained this winter, and now, early spring. Essential Quality (4 for 4 overall) won Saturday s $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds, his first start since clinching an Eclipse Award as the country s champion 2-year-old male in the $2 million Breeders Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 6 at Keeneland.
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Ike, Aidan and the couple s two children in Montana
Aidan Green was holding her 4-month-old and pushing a stroller through the grandstand early Thursday afternoon at Oaklawn. Less than an hour later, Green was strolling into the Larry Snyder Winner s Circle following her first career training victory recognized by Equibase, racing s official data gathering organization.
Green achieved her personal milestone with Kristo ($18.20), who won the fifth race, a starter-allowance route, by 3 ¾ lengths under Elvin Gonzalez. Kristo marked the 21st recognized starter for Green, who saddled her first horse in 2020, according to Equibase. Green s husband, Ike, is a former trainer who now assists his wife and Robertino Diodoro, Oaklawn s leading trainer in 2020. Aidan Green said she has seven horses on the track in training.