Wet Paint Tired, but Doing Fine After CCA Oaks Win

The blanket of red and white carnations were in a prominent position outside the office of trainer Brad Cox on the Oklahoma Training Track.

There was also a blanket there that said, winner, 2023 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1).

That was some of the loot won by the talented 3-year-old filly Wet Paint  when she took the 1 1/8-mile race by a neck over Sacred Wish  at Saratoga Race Course.

"She looks good," Cox said July 23 while sitting in a golf cart at his barn. "I was happy with the way she looked. She was a little bit tired, but she had the right to be. Running hard at a mile and an eighth here is always demanding. I am so proud of her effort and how she came out of it."

Godolphin's Wet Paint, a daughter of Blame  , is starting to put a resume together that could eventually put her in the conversation for best 3-year-old filly in the land.

The leader right now is Pretty Mischievous , also owned by Godolphin, and trained by Brendan Walsh.

Wet Paint has won four of six starts this year, all of them with a rally late. The CCA Oaks was the most dramatic of them all.

"She always seems to 'wow' you," Cox said. "Some of her races at Oaklawn this winter, based off the track conditions and the paces she ran up against and the way she was winning going away, you were like, 'wow.' This was another of those 'WOW' performances. She was very good (in the CCA Oaks)."

Two of her three wins at Oaklawn Park over the winter were on off tracks—the Martha Washington Stakes and Honeybee Stakes (G3)—and another on a fast track, the Fantasy Stakes (G3).

Cox said if all goes well the next four weeks, Wet Paint will be back in the $600,000 Alabama Stakes (G1) at the Spa Aug. 19.

Another Cox horse, Gary and Mary West's Salute the Stars , did not fare as well as he finished seventh in the eight-horse field at the Haskell Stakes (G1) at Monmouth Park.

"The winner (Geaux Rocket Ride ) was very good," Cox said. "(Salute the Stars) did not really negotiate the first turn. He didn't the last time (in the Pegasus Stakes) either but he was able to get up and win. Obviously there were better horses yesterday. We didn't get the performance we were looking for out of him."

Cox said Salute the Stars will not be under consideration for the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Aug. 26.