Cox's Encino, Star of Wonder Lead Pimlico Special

For trainer Brad Cox, there are one of two distinctly different ways to win the $250,000 Pimlico Special Stakes (G3).

One is with Godolphin's Encino , a grade 3 winner looking for the third stakes victory of his career.

The other is with WinStar Farm's Star of Wonder , who comes into the May 16 stakes at Pimlico Race Course from the opposite end of the spectrum. The 1 3/16-mile dirt test will serve as the first stakes appearance for the 4-year-old who has won four of his five starts.

"They're both doing well," Cox said. "I think they'll both like the distance."

The stock of the Cox's uncoupled duo went up with the anticipated scratch of 2024 Pimlico Special winner and Friday's 8-5 morning-line favorite Pyrenees . Daily Racing Form's David Grening reported that trainer Cherie DeVaux said Pyrenees did not exit his most recent breeze satisfactorily. 

Both Cox-trained colts are coming into the race in sharp form.

Encino, a homebred son of Nyquist  , won the 2024 Lexington Stakes (G3) at Keeneland and was entered in last year's Kentucky Derby (G1) but was scratched due to a soft tissue injury. That kept him on the sidelines until Jan. 16 when he won an allowance optional claimer at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. He then tired badly and faded to seventh in the Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes (G2) before bouncing back in his most recent start, a second in the Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes (G3) on the synthetic surface at Turfway Park.

Two of seven returnees from the Kentucky Cup Classic have won their next starts, and another, victorious Mercante , ran second in the Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) on Derby Day at Churchill Downs.

"We wheeled him back in three weeks after a dull effort at Gulfstream," Cox said about 4-year-old Encino. "We didn't really think he'd like the one turn down at Gulfstream. I thought he ran a really big race at Turfway. The horse that beat him came back and ran really well, a lot of positives. He's had plenty of time to recover since the Turfway race, and (he's) back to the dirt. He's a graded stakes winner on dirt. I think he's a dual surface horse. We'll see how things go Friday, but I think he could even run on the turf at some point if the right opportunity presented itself."

Star of Wonder, a 4-year-old homebred son of Uncle Mo, comes off a victory in an April 4 allowance optional claimer at Aqueduct Racetrack in his lone 2025 start.

"He's very well bred. He's a nice horse doing really well right now and ran a big race at Aqueduct off the layoff," Cox said.

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Red Route One  will try to improve upon a fourth-place finish for trainer Steve Asmussen in last year's Pimlico Special. A 5-year-old homebred son of Gun Runner  , the stone-cold closer won the Essex Handicap (G3) two starts ago and will be running in a stakes for the 25th straight race.

The expected field of nine also includes Jupiter Stable's Phileas Fogg , a former claimer trying graded stakes company for the first time after winning the Excelsior Stakes by 5 1/4 lengths. The 5-year-old Astern  gelding is trained by Gustavo Rodriguez.

Insights From Thoro-Graph

• Phileas Fogg got a lot faster once Gustavo Rodriguez got his hands on him, and at this point is looking like the claim of the year. Thoro-Graph builds ground loss into our figures, and a four-wide trip in his last earned this gelding a slight new top. With the rail, three of this gelding's last four are probably good enough here.
• Encino took three starts this year to get back to his 3-year-old best, which is not good. Even repeating that last won't do it here, and given how well he ran on synthetic, we think this one's future might be as a turf miler.
• Awesome Aaron  is one of several that have recently jumped to big new tops for trainer Norm Casse. A repeat of his last would put him in this, but a bounce is much more likely.
• Pyrenees has a couple of figures that put him right there with Phileas Fogg, and if he's ready to run one of them off the layoff he has a big shot here.
• Star of Wonder came out in his seasonal debut with a new top. He would probably need another forward move to have a real shot here, but he could go either way off this pattern, so it's possible.
• Red Route One might be the best-managed horse in history, having earned more than $2 million despite not running very fast, by his connections finding a lot of soft spots. This is not one of them.

Thoro-Graph performance figures are calculated based on a race's time with adjustments for beaten lengths, track speed, ground loss, weight carried, and when necessary, wind. The lower the number, the better the race. Complimentary sheets for the Pimlico Special can be found online at Thoro-Graph. Learn more about how to analyze Thoro-Graph data at www.thorograph.com/basics.