Oaklawn Barn Notes: Florent Geroux to Ride at Oaklawn

By Jennifer Hoyt —-

CADDO RIVER SEEKS TO GIVE SHORTLEAF THE SWEPT OF OAKLAWN’S SERIES

Florent Geroux to Ride at Oaklawn

Florent Geroux’s second stint as a riding regular at Oaklawn figures to go better than his first. Much better.

Geroux was fresh off his first career riding title at Hawthorne when he made his Oaklawn debut in 2012, presumably as the go-to rider for Chicago-based powerhouse Midwest Thoroughbreds (Richard and Karen Papiese). Midwest was Oaklawn’s leading owner in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It teased Dan Lasater’s then-single-season Oaklawn record (48 victories) in 2012 before finishing with 42.

Geroux, trainer Roger Brueggemann and Midwest had teamed to sweep the titles at the 2011 Hawthorne fall meet. But with Brueggemann remaining in the Chicago area, Geroux rode only four horses for the far-reaching, multi-trainer Midwest Thoroughbreds operation during the 2012 Oaklawn meeting and quietly left Hot Springs after going winless with only seven mounts.

“We just decided to go back to Chicago because we didn’t have the business we were promised to have,” Geroux said during training hours Wednesday morning at Oaklawn. “With Midwest Thoroughbreds, it was back and forth. Sometimes you get hired and sometimes you stay on the bench. It’s always been like that. But through my career, I can’t complain. They just helped me a lot and really helped my career to go to another level. It was mainly because of him (Brueggemann), winning a lot of races on the Chicago circuit and winning the Breeders’ Cup with Work All Week and the Arlington Million with The Pizza Man.”

Geroux did make an important business contact during his brief stint at the 2012 Oaklawn meeting, riding four horses for Brad Cox, then one of Midwest’s trainers employed in Hot Springs, and billed a career “up and comer.”

“When I came here, it was just different trainers,” Geroux said. “The only one who helped me was Brad.”

Almost a decade later, Geroux has returned to Oaklawn as a regular, more specifically as the go-to rider for Cox, a finalist for an Eclipse Award as the country’s outstanding trainer in 2020.

Normally, Geroux, 34, winters at Fair Grounds, where he has recorded 506 victories since 2013. But Oaklawn’s lucrative purse structure (roughly $600,000 daily projection) and Cox’s top-shelf barn had Geroux getting on horses for the first time this season at Oaklawn on a crisp, cloudy Wednesday morning.

“Brad and I, we talked and we decided where was best for me to go and that was mainly here,” said Geroux, whose 36 victories ranked fourth in this season’s Fair Grounds standings through Tuesday. “Of course, it was mainly because of him. At the Fair Grounds, I have a lot of business, too. I have more business there because people expect me to ride there. Here, it’s different, but I’m hoping to have a good meet. With the help of Brad, I think it’s going to be very beneficial.”

In contrast to 2012, Geroux is named on 12 horses during the first two days of racing (Friday and Saturday), including seven for Cox. Geroux and Cox have teamed for 285 victories since 2014, a collaboration highlighted by Eclipse Award winner and two-time Breeders’ Cup Distaff champion Monomoy Girl.

“We work well together,” said Cox, Oaklawn’s third-leading trainer in 2020 and a dominant figure the last few years at Fair Grounds. “He’s done a fantastic job for us for years now. Just thought we would start at Fair Grounds and see how it goes. It’s going well, but I think with the purse money and the day-to-day racing being so good at Oaklawn, it probably just makes more sense for him to be at Oaklawn, as opposed to the Fair Grounds, once it starts.”

Among Geroux’s first scheduled mounts for Cox is Caddo River in Friday’s $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds. Geroux said he’s anxious to reunite with Monomoy Girl, who is scheduled to make her 2021 debut in the $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) for older fillies and mares Feb. 15 at Oaklawn. The Bayakoa is a major local prep for the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 17.

“Very excited,” Geroux said. “It’s one of the main reasons, too, I’m here. Because of the COVID situation, you don’t know how you’re going to be able to travel back and forth. She’s supposed to run twice, once in the Bayakoa and once in the Apple Blossom. That’s one of the main reasons why I’m here.”

Geroux has more than 1,700 victories and $108 million in purse earnings in his career. In addition to Monomoy Girl, Geroux was the regular rider of 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner. Geroux also won the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) aboard Work All Week and the 2015 Arlington Million (G1) aboard The Pizza Man for Brueggemann and Midwest Thoroughbreds. Work All Week, the country’s champion male sprinter of 2014, and Gun Runner were both Oaklawn stakes winners.

Geroux, who was born in France, recorded his first United States victory in 2008. He has 11 career Oaklawn victories.

With a Bullet

Keepmeinmind recorded his third local workout this month at Oaklawn – zipping 5 furlongs in 1:00 over a fast track Tuesday morning under regular rider David Cohen – in advance of the colt’s 2021 debut in the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds Feb. 15. The time ranked No. 1 among 40 published at the distance.

“Really good,” trainer Robertino Diodoro said Wednesday morning. “It worked out good, actually. Just right at the quarter pole, like David said, he looked up and said there was a horse about 6 or 7 lengths in front of him and he had a little target to run at. It kind of worked out really well.”

Keepmeinmind recorded splits of :25 for his opening quarter-mile, :37 for 3 furlongs and :48.20 for a half-mile before galloping out 6 furlongs in 1:12.80 and 7 furlongs in 1:26.80, according to clockers. Diodoro said Keepmeinmind worked from the five-eighths pole to the regular finish line.

Keepmeinmind had previously recorded half-mile breezes Jan. 6 and Jan. 12 at Oaklawn.

“He’s starting to become a pretty good work horse,” Diodoro said.

Keepmeinmind raced four times last year, finishing second in the $400,000 Breeders’ Futurity (G1) Oct. 3 at Keeneland and third in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 6 at Keeneland before breaking his maiden as the 2-1 favorite in the $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs.

The 1 1/16-mile Southwest is Oaklawn’s second of four Kentucky Derby points races.

Keepmeinmind ranks second on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 18 points, according to Churchill Downs. Unbeaten Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Essential Quality has 30 points to top the standings. Essential Quality, the probable 2-year-old male champion, is under consideration for the Southwest, trainer Brad Cox said.

CADDO RIVER SEEKS TO GIVE SHORTLEAF THE SWEPT OF OAKLAWN’S SERIES

HOT SPRINGS, AR (Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021) – No owner has won all four of what are now Oaklawn’s Kentucky Derby points races. But, one will have that chance Friday when trainer Brad Cox sends out Caddo River for John Ed Anthony’s Shortleaf Stable in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, a 1-mile event that highlights Oaklawn’s opening-day nine-race program.

Probable post time for the Smarty Jones, which goes as the eighth race, is 4:11 p.m. (Central). First post is 12:30 p.m. There is a 40-percent chance of showers Friday morning before skies clear and afternoon temperatures climb to the mid-50s, according to weatherunderground.com.

Caddo River is among seven horses entered in the Smarty Jones, which will offer 17 points (10-4-2-1) to the top four finishers, respectively, toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby. Oaklawn’s Kentucky Derby points series continues with the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 15, $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) March 13 and the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) April 10.

No owner has dominated Oaklawn’s Triple Crown prep series like Anthony, 81, a Hot Springs lumberman who rose to acclaim in the late 1970s when his horses ran under the Loblolly Stable banner. Anthony hasn’t had Smarty Jones starter since the race was inaugurated in 2008, but he’s won the Southwest a record three times (1984, 1987 and 1991), Rebel a record five times (1980, 1984, 1987, 1992 and 1993) and the Arkansas Derby a record three times (1980, 1987 and 1992).

Many of Anthony’s best horses were named for points in Arkansas, including Cox’s Ridge, the owner’s first nationally prominent runner; Temperence Hill, the country’s champion 3-year-old male of 1980 after winning the Rebel, Arkansas Derby and Belmont Stakes; Prairie Bayou, the country’s champion 3-year-old male of 1993 after winning the Preakness; and Pine Bluff, the 1992 Arkansas Derby and Preakness winner.

Caddo River, by 2007 Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun, will be making his two-turn and stakes debut after a blowout Nov. 15 maiden score at Churchill Downs to close his 2020 campaign. A homebred for Anthony, the colt is named for a tributary that begins about 55 miles southwest of Hot Springs.

“The Caddo River is a beautiful stream,” Anthony said. “I keep a long list of potential names and this was a promising horse. I thought the name fit very well. That was the reason I chose it. I can’t tell you how many horses I’ve given good names that didn’t work out. Of course, I’ve wasted some really good names on some horses that turned out not to be good racehorses. But you always hope that the good name will attach to a good horse.”

Caddo River made three starts at 2, finishing second in two 7-furlong races in New York before breaking his maiden by 9 ½-front-running lengths in a one-turn mile at Churchill Downs. Caddo River delivered as the odds-on favorite and earned a career-high 83 Beyer Speed Figure. Caddo River has four published workouts at Oaklawn, the last a Jan. 16 move over a fast track when he covered 5 furlongs, in company, in 1:00.40.

“This COVID has cramped our style across the board and so I’m not as familiar with the horse as I normally would be,” Anthony said. “I usually smoke them over in the spring in Ocala and then again in the summer, sometimes up at Saratoga. But last year, as you know, that wasn’t, I guess, appropriate, certainly for a man of my age. I know him by what I’m being told and, of course, Brad thinks highly of him and feels like, as Brad says, ‘This is a good horse.’ So, we’ll see how good.”

Caddo River is out of the Anthony-raced mare, Pangburn, an allowance winner at the 2015 Oaklawn meeting. Pangburn then finished third in the $150,000 Honeybee Stakes (G3) and fourth in the $400,000 Fantasy Stakes (G3), Oaklawn’s two biggest events for 3-year-old fillies. All three races were 1 1/16 miles.

The projected Smarty Jones field from the rail out: Martini Blu, Francisco Arrieta to ride, 115 pounds, 6-1 on the morning line; Lawlessness, David Cohen, 115, 12-1; Cowan, Ricardo Santana Jr., 115, 9-5; Big Thorn, David Cabrera, 117, 9-2; Hardly Swayed, Martin Garcia, 115, 12-1; Moonlite Strike, Joe Talamo, 115, 4-1; and Caddo River, Florent Geroux, 115, 5-2.

Cowan and Big Thorn, a recent arrival from south Florida, are trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, who won the 2020 Smarty Jones with Gold Street. Cowan finished a fast-closing second in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2) Nov. 6 at Keeneland and completed his 2-year-old campaign with a runner-up finish in the $200,000 Springboard Mile Dec. 18 at Remington Park.

Big Thorn, previously with trainer David Fawkes, won the $60,000 off-the-turf Juvenile Turf Stakes Nov. 22 at Gulfstream Park West for prominent Arkansas owners Alex and JoAnn Lieblong. The Lieblongs bred Big Thorn and campaigned his sire, Grade 1 winner The Big Beast.

Moonlite Strike, a winner of two consecutive starts in south Florida, will be making his two-turn and stakes debut for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., who has a string at Oaklawn for the first time in 2021. Lawlessness is also entered in an entry-level allowance race Saturday, but will run in the Smarty Jones, trainer Ingrid Mason said Wednesday morning.

The Smarty Jones is the first of 33 scheduled stakes races during the 57-day meeting that ends May 1.

For more information, visit www.oaklawn.com or call 501-623-4411. Oaklawn – A New Level of Racing.

Cover Photo: Florent Geroux with his late Father; Hodges Photo