Shedaresthedevil Back at Oaklawn to Begin 2021 Season

Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Shedaresthedevil returned to Oaklawn Park around 4 a.m. CT Jan. 9, according to co-owner Staton Flurry of Hot Springs, Ark.

Shedaresthedevil wintered last year at Oaklawn, where she won the Honeybee Stakes (G3) and was third in the Fantasy Stakes (G3). She added an allowance optional claiming victory at Churchill Downs and the Indiana Oaks (G3) at Indiana Grand before taking the Kentucky Oaks back at Churchill Sept. 4.

Following a third-place finish in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1) Oct. 4 at Keeneland, her first start against older horses, Shedaresthedevil received a 60-day break, Flurry said, before resuming light training in mid-December in Kentucky. Trainer Brad Cox said the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares racing 1 1/6 miles March 13 at Oaklawn is a possible first 2021 target for the 4-year-old Daredevil  filly.

"Glad to have her back on track and back here," said Flurry, who through his Flurry Racing Stables co-owns Shedaresthedevil with Qatar Racing and Big Aut Farms. "She looks phenomenal. It seems like she enjoyed her time off and it did her well. She's put on some weight and seems very bright eyed. Excited to see what 2021 holds in store for her, beginning with the Azeri."

Flurry Racing Stables purchased Shedaresthedevil as a graded-placed 2-year-old for $280,000 from the Hunter Valley Farm consignment to the 2019 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. From 11 total career starts, the filly has a 5-2-3 record and earnings of $1,285,768.

The Azeri is the final major local prep for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17. Cox said champion Monomoy Girl is pointing for the second race in the prep series, the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) Feb. 15, for her 2021 debut. The Bayakoa is also run at 1 1/16 miles.

Oaklawn's first local prep for the Apple Blossom is the $150,000 Pippin Stakes Jan. 23, run at one mile.

This will be Monomoy Girl's first season racing in the silks of Spendthrift Farm, who purcahsed her for $9.5 million at The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's premier breeding stock sale, from the ELiTE consignment after her second Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) victory. The 6-year-old Tapizar  mare, who was the first Kentucky Oaks winner for Cox in 2018, has turned in three works this year at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, where she is based this winter. Most recently she breezed a half-mile in :51 over a fast track.

Monomoy Girl, previously campaigned by Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables, has earned $4,426,818 from a 13-2-0 record in 15 starts.