Brad H. Cox (born March 3, 1980) is a
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...
racehorse
trainer whose most notable horses include multiple Eclipse Award winner
Monomoy Girl
Monomoy Girl (foaled March 26, 2015) is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse who was the American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 2018 and Champion Older Female Horse of 2020. She showed very promising form as a juvenile in 2017 when she wo ...
,
Knicks Go,
Covfefe,
Mandaloun
The mandaloun ( ar, مندلون) is a term given to a type of mullioned window. The mandaloun is an element of the traditional architecture of Lebanon that first appeared in the 17th-century stately mansions and later in the vernacular houses o ...
, and
Essential Quality. He had four winners at the
2020 Breeders' Cup
The 2020 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 37th edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year. The 14 races, all but one of which were Grade I, took place on November 6 and 7 at Keeneland racetrack in Le ...
, helping Cox earn the
Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer that year. In 2021, he won that title again after Essential Quality won the Belmont Stakes and Knicks Go won the Breeders' Cup Classic; Mandaloun would later be awarded that year's Kentucky Derby.
Background
Cox was born in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
on March 30, 1980,
the son of Jerry and Mary Cox. He grew up just two blocks away from
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs is a horse racing complex located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, famed for hosting the annual Kentucky Derby. It officially opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was ...
and his father began taking him to the track when he was four or five. Cox began studying the ''
Daily Racing Form'' when he was twelve. "I felt I knew a lot about what it meant. I was intrigued by the trainers, the jockeys, the past performances themselves."
He attended
Iroquois High School and got his first job as a hot walker at thirteen, then worked as a groom for trainers Burt Kessinger and Jimmy Baker. He was the an assistant trainer to Dallas Stewart for five years
before starting his own stable at age 24.
He is currently married to Livia Frazar, a racetrack
veterinarian
A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...
, who met him in 2011. The two have a son Brodie. Two sons from his first marriage, Blake and Bryson, work with him as assistants/barn foremen.
Racing career
Cox earned his first career win on December 4, 2004 with One Lucky Storm at Turfway Park. In 2005, Tappin for Gold gave him his first stakes win. He had fairly limited success in the following years, mainly in the claiming ranks, and his stable shrank at one point to just two or three horses. However, he slowly built up his client base, which came to include members of the
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
royal family,
Juddmonte Farms and
Spendthrift Farm
Spendthrift Farm is a thoroughbred race horse breeding farm and burial site in Lexington, Kentucky, currently owned by Eric & Tammy Gustavson. It was founded by Leslie Combs II and named for the great stallion Spendthrift, who was owned by Combs' a ...
.
"It was an amazing roller-coaster ride to get to the point we are now," said Cox in January 2021. "It's still a roller-coaster ride, but we have the numbers that we’re able to keep things going."
Cox earned his first graded stakes win in 2014 with Carve in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap. He noted that his early graded stakes winners were from the claiming ranks. "We had to develop them or improve them," he said, "whether it was surface change or something along the way that got them in good form. That's how it really got kicked off, our ability to show we could win at the graded-stakes level. I think that's when the larger outfits, people with homebreds with nice pedigrees, start calling you and you get horses out of the sale as well."
Cox's reputation as an elite trainer began when
Monomoy Girl
Monomoy Girl (foaled March 26, 2015) is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse who was the American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 2018 and Champion Older Female Horse of 2020. She showed very promising form as a juvenile in 2017 when she wo ...
joined his stable in 2017. She gave Cox his first Grade I win in the
Ashland Stakes
The Ashland Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in early April at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. It and the Ashland Oaks, the Kentucky Association racetrack's predecessor race, were named for ...
at
Keeneland
Keeneland Association, Inc. is an equine business based in Lexington, Kentucky. It includes two distinct divisions: the Keeneland Race Course, a Thoroughbred racing facility, and Keeneland Sales, a horse auction complex. It is also known for it ...
in 2018 and then became his first
Eclipse Award winner after winning the
Kentucky Oaks,
Acorn Stakes,
Coaching Club American Oaks
The Coaching Club American Oaks is a race for thoroughbred three-year-old fillies and the second leg of the Triple Tiara of Thoroughbred Racing. Originally run at Belmont Park, the Grade I $500,000 stakes race was moved to Saratoga Race Course in 2 ...
and
Breeders' Cup Distaff
The Breeders' Cup Distaff is a Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race for fillies and mares, 3 years old and up. Known as the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic between 2008 and 2012, it is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or ...
.
Cox recorded his 1,000th win on November 18, 2018 with Play On at
Fair Grounds.
In 2019, Cox trained two more Eclipse Award winners,
Covfefe and
British Idiom, whose campaigns were highlighted by wins in the
Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and
Juvenile Fillies respectively. Those wins temporarily increased Cox to fourth place on the 2019 list of leading trainers by money earned. He finished the year ranked fifth by earnings and fourth by number of wins.
After missing her 2019 campaign due to illness, Monomoy Girl returned in 2020 to win another Eclipse Award. Cox was the leading trainer at Keeneland's 2020 Fall Meet, then had a record-tying four winners at the
2020 Breeders' Cup
The 2020 Breeders' Cup World Championships was the 37th edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year. The 14 races, all but one of which were Grade I, took place on November 6 and 7 at Keeneland racetrack in Le ...
: Monomoy Girl in the Distaff,
Essential Quality in the
Juvenile
Juvenile may refer to:
*Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood
*Juvenile (organism)
*Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper
* ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film
* ''Juvenile'' (2017 film)
*Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...
, Knicks Go in the
Dirt Mile and Aunt Pearl in the
Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Cox was voted the
Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer of 2020 and again in 2021.
In 2021, Cox trained two Triple Crown race winners,
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...
winner
Mandaloun
The mandaloun ( ar, مندلون) is a term given to a type of mullioned window. The mandaloun is an element of the traditional architecture of Lebanon that first appeared in the 17th-century stately mansions and later in the vernacular houses o ...
and
Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed Th ...
winner
Essential Quality,
and
American Horse of the Year
The American Award for Horse of the Year, one of the Eclipse Awards, is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no governing body to sanction the various awards, "Hor ...
Knicks Go, who won five of his seven starts on the year including the
Breeders' Cup Classic
The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade I Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3-year-olds and older run at a distance of on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack as part of the Breeders' Cup World Championships in late October o ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Brad H.
1980 births
American horse trainers
Living people
Eclipse Award winners
Iroquois High School alumni
People from Louisville, Kentucky
American Champion racehorse trainers