Travel Column Gets the Trip in Golden Rod
Image:
Description:
Photo: Coady Photography
Travel Column wins the Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs
An eventful tour of the Churchill Downs oval under Florent Geroux earned OXO Equine's Travel Column a victory in the $200,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) by a length over Clairiere Nov. 28. The daughter of first-crop sire Frosted went from last to first in the 1 1/16-mile event in 1:43.98. Coach was 2 1/2 lengths back in third, while odds-on favorite Simply Ravishing missed the show spot by a half-length.
Travel Column was squeezed soon after the gates opened and was last as the nine juvenile fillies passed the wire the first time. Geroux kept his cool while saving ground early, and the tandem made progress toward the leaders down the backstretch as the field headed toward the turn.
Bottled up behind a wall of fillies as the field came into the stretch, she was switched from the two path to the five path for running room. The filly was game, getting the lead deep inside the sixteenth pole to get up for the score.
Travel Column wins the Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs
"I was unsure what was going to happen when she broke the way she did," winning trainer Brad Cox said. "She's a very fast filly. I think she got a good education here as far as taking dirt and everything. When she started making her move at the half-mile pole and started weaving between horses, ducked down inside, and then got out, I didn't know if she'd get there, but she showed she could get the distance.
"She's a touch hot-blooded, so it's a fine line as to what you can do with her in the mornings as far as keeping her where she needs to be. She'll come around. That will come with racing."
Longshot Farsighted set the early pace of :23.77 and :48.21 while being stalked by Alexandria, Simply Ravishing, and Coach. Simply Ravishing got to the lead on the turn after six furlongs in 1:12.76 but was unable to hold off a few rivals inside the eighth pole.
Bred in Kentucky by Mr. and Mrs. Bayne Welker Jr. and Denali Stud, Travel Column was an $850,000 purchase last year at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale, and was the co-third-highest-priced filly at the auction.
"She came in with a lot of hype and showed it from the start," Cox said. "She's a quality filly."
Out of the three-time stakes-winning Swingit (by Victory Gallop), Travel Column is a half sister to Neolithic , a third-place finisher in the Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline (G1) and Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1). The win Saturday was her second in three starts. She broke her maiden at first asking Sept. 4 going six furlongs at Churchill Downs. In her second start, she was third behind winner Simply Ravishing in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) at Keeneland. She has earned $209,184.
The winner paid $11.80, $6.20, and $4. Clairiere returned $5.60 and $3.40, and Coach paid $5.40. No Mo' Spending was scratched.