Monomoy Girl Has Lifted Connections Into Spotlight

They're all there in black and white: the grade 1 wins, the 2018 Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) triumph, the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly of that year, the head-to-head advantage over a heralded rival, Midnight Bisou. All the conventional measures the Thoroughbred racing community uses to separate the good from the great—those horses who reside in the ether with the all-timers.

Such glittering accolades decorate the résumé of champion Monomoy Girl, framing a career that stands a good chance of being voted worthy of a Hall of Fame plaque. Hers are gaudy enough achievements when taken at face value. Sometimes, though, even mountains of obvious evidence don't tell the whole story.

The '1s' that conclude virtually all her past performance lines illustrate Monomoy Girl's dominance, but it is the year-and-a-half gap between the end of her 3-year-old season and her 2020 debut where she proved most indomitable. And where countless horses have been credited with providing once-in-a-lifetime moments, the chestnut mare has been uniquely inclusive in her rise, pulling up those around her and planting them on pedestals that have allowed their own excellence to saturate the sport.

Without Monomoy Girl in his barn, trainer Brad Cox's journey to the forefront of his profession may still be a work in progress rather than reality. Had the 5-year-old distaffer not been the first of her litany of grade 1 winners purchased, Liz Crow's status as one of the sharpest bloodstock agents in the game may still be a best-kept secret. And if the copper-colored mare hadn't developed into the queen of her generation, jockey Florent Geroux wouldn't be going through the current emotional exercise of counting down how many more times he has left to climb aboard her back.

So while each member of her team can point to various moments where they were left awestruck by her superiority, trying to quantify the enormity of Monomoy Girl's accomplishments requires a deeper dive than a simple assessment of her statistics.

"It's funny because … have you ever had something that completely changed your life? I think about what if I hadn't landed on her that day, if I hadn't signed the ticket that day, how different everything would be," said Crow, recalling the moment the gavel fell in her favor inside the Keeneland sales pavilion in 2016, allowing her to purchase Monomoy Girl for $100,000. "It's amazing to think how far everyone has come since we first started with her, what all of our lives would be like without her.

"She means more to me than anything I could ever describe."

Because of an impending date on the calendar, those closest to Monomoy Girl have been repeatedly hit with such waves of nostalgia as they reflect on the impact the champion mare has had on their worlds while trying to reconcile the looming chapter on the horizon. One day after she is scheduled to take aim at capturing the $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 7 at Keeneland for the second time in her career, the daughter of Tapizar  is set to be sold as a racing or broodmare prospect at The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's breeding stock sale.

The mere mention that Monomoy Girl may only have one more start left to her storied career elicits bittersweet tones from her camp as they balance feeling ridiculously spoiled by her exploits with the lingering wonderment over whether the mare who never takes a step backward has even hit her peak.

In this, her 5-year-old season, it's been same old, same old in terms of Monomoy Girl leaving her challengers to fight it out for minor honors. Her three starts in 2020 have each ended with her sauntering into the winner's circle. And in the wake of her latest score in the La Troienne Stakes Presented by Oak Grove Racing and Gaming (G1) at Churchill Downs Sept. 4, she is likely to carry the burden of favoritism over Swiss Skydiver into the 1 1/8-mile Distaff.

What has added another layer of emotion to Monomoy Girl's latest campaign for year-end honors, however, is the fact her on-track career could have easily been declared over at various points 12 months ago. Last spring, as she was preparing for her 4-year-old debut, she suffered a bout of colic that landed her in Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital for multiple days before heading to WinStar Farm for an extended recovery. Though she was able to return to Cox's barn to begin working toward a planned title defense in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Distaff, she again went to the sidelines after emerging from a workout with a gluteal strain.

"We talked about (retiring her) because it was just the right thing to do, but, honestly, it was never really that close," said Sol Kumin, whose Monomoy Stables owns the mare in partnership with Michael Dubb, The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables. "She never had such a major injury that we felt like the chances of her coming back were not good. And she had gotten close to getting back to the races twice. We had put a foundation into her both times and felt like she was close and breezing lights out.

"Also, we love racing and we don't always do the best economic thing. She's got a great fan base and an ownership group that is racing first, so, honestly, it was a pretty easy decision. This filly—she means a lot to Brad, and she means a lot to Liz and to this ownership group. These are the horses where when it's all said and done, these are the ones that you really remember—the ones that make such an impact on so many people's lives."

If the Breeders' Cup goes down as the last time the public sees Monomoy Girl flaunt her quality, it will be a full-circle moment. It was on the Keeneland grounds after all when Crow first spotted what would become obvious to the rest of the racing community.

The Presence of Something Special

The moments after Crow signed the ticket for Hip 1611 at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale are ones she can joke about now. Though Crow had previously served as director of racing for Bradley Thoroughbreds from 2011-15, Keeneland officials not only misspelled her last name in the system—adding an errant 'e' at the end—but she then had to explain she was buying on behalf of Kumin when questioned about whether she had credit with the sales company.

It was a heck of a way to make your first Keeneland purchase, but the chestnut youngster Crow secured has since made sure the Maryland native is anything but an unknown figure in the auction arena.

Though Monomoy Girl came up on the radar early for Crow, the public first got to know her in the fall of 2017. Racing in the Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs, Monomoy Girl officially signaled she was going to be a problem for her classmates. She led at every point of call during a 6 1/2-length victory.

"Brilliance. That's when she showed her brilliance," Cox said. "I remember she broke well, and I was like, 'OK, she obviously knows how to come out of the gate now,' but she went fast and she kept going fast. And I was like, 'Wow, this is a serious filly.' To sit here and tell you I thought she was going to win graded stakes prior to that, it hadn't really crossed my mind. But when she performed the way she did in the Rags to Riches, I was like, 'This is a serious racehorse.'"

She's maintained until age 5. Returning this year at Churchill Downs in an allowance optional claiming race May 16, she cruised to a 2 3/4-length victory, then followed that up with a two-length win in the Ruffian Stakes (G2) July 11.

"What comes in my mind first is she's just super gifted with a ton of ability," said Geroux, who has been aboard Monomoy Girl for all but her first career start. "That's her main weapon. She does things very easily. We can see in almost all of her races, she's not even fully trying at the end. She's kind of messing around and stuff like that. It shows you that if she was putting her head down and really trying, she probably could win easier every time."

Sharing the Spotlight

When Monomoy Girl captured the 2018 Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) at Keeneland, it marked the first grade 1 win of Cox's career and the jump-off point for his barn to explode onto the national scene. Last season, Cox celebrated a pair of Breeders' Cup wins when British Idiom took the Juvenile Fillies (G1) and Covfefe prevailed in the Filly and Mare Sprint (G1). In addition to watching those two charges win divisional honors at the 2019 Eclipse Awards, Cox himself was a finalist for outstanding trainer—a rise he attributes in no small part to the spotlight Monomoy Girl provided.

"Oh yeah, it's huge for your career to get a horse like this," said Cox, who celebrated a second Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) victory along with Geroux in September with Shedaresthedevil. "I can remember dreaming of being a trainer and becoming a trainer and people saying how you need that one horse that gets you going, that shows the racing world you can be trusted with a grade 1 horse. And she was that for me, without a doubt."

Similarly, Crow has proven that her ability to pick out talent wasn't just a one-off success story.

Since purchasing Monomoy Girl, Crow has been responsible for landing future grade 1 winners Leofric  and Long On Value  at public auction as well as Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) winner Wells Bayou. Her list of clients with BSW/Crow Bloodstock is among the most enviable in racing, and this year's September sale at Keeneland saw her sign for more than $5 million in purchases, including going to $1,025,000 for an Into Mischief  filly.

Even as her own list of successes continues to grow, Crow says there is no topping the experience of going to the backstretch in the mornings and being greeted by the red-haired beast she picked out four seasons ago.

"It's been one of the biggest honors and privileges of my life to be involved with this filly," Crow said.

While Crow is preparing herself emotionally to let Monomoy Girl go at Fasig-Tipton, where the mare is part of her consignment with Bradley Weisbord of ELiTE, Kumin is cautiously leaving the door open for more chapters to be written. Depending on how the Distaff shakes out, he and his partners could opt to hold on to their girl a while longer and potentially take a shot against males in the Cigar Mile Handicap (G1) at Aqueduct Racetrack Dec. 5.

"It's definitely something to consider. But it's tough," Kumin said. "The end of this season will be difficult no matter what. I would say the door is slightly cracked open, but we have every intention to sell her this year."

But first, there is still business to attend to.

A victory in the Distaff would make Monomoy Girl just the fourth horse to win the race more than once and would have her join the legendary Beholder (2013 and 2016) as the only ones to capture it in non-consecutive years. It would be yet another statistical milestone for a mare who lacks for little in the way of achievements.

 It would still pale in comparison to what she has already gifted those around her.

"You think about all the emotions and especially how much she means to Brad and the barn and … it's made us all closer," Kumin said. "That's the magic of this whole sport. When you have a special one and you go on a journey like we've been on with her, with all the people involved, you have a bond that you can never take away."