HOT SPRINGS -- Though its director has been here for years, the Monomoy Girl show will take Oaklawn's stage today for the first time.
Monomoy Girl, a 6-year-old daughter of Tapizar, will bring her 13 wins in 15 starts to the racetrack from the barn of longtime Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort trainer Brad Cox.
Monomoy Girl is the even-money favorite among an expected field of six in the Grade III, $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes for fillies and mares 4 years old and up. Post time for the 1 1/16-mile race is scheduled for 5:11 p.m. today.
Also on today's 10-race card are the Dixie Belle Stakes and Downthedustyroad Stakes.
Both the Bayakoa favorite and her trainer bring top credentials from last season. The former earned the 2020 Eclipse Award as the older dirt female champion. It was her second Eclipse. Cox earned his first after a season in which he trained winners of 30 graded-stakes races.
Florent Geroux, listed to ride Monomoy Girl in the Bayakoa, said he was unconcerned by her three months away from competition.
"It's a privilege to ride her type," he said. "You're just grateful to be on board. It's great. Champions like this, they don't come very often, and I try to enjoy every minute of it when I'm on her back."
After her championship season in 2018, Monomoy Girl missed all of 2019 because of colic and a subsequent muscular injury. Eighteen months after her previous start, she returned to racing with an allowance win at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on May 16.
"When she came back, she was still on top of her game," said Larry Jones, trainer of Bayakoa entrant Istan Council.
Jones said Monomoy Girl already has achieved the stature of an all-time great.
"There's nothing not to like," he said. "She's an extremely talented mare, one of the best fillies we've probably ever seen."
In her final start of 2020, Monomoy Girl won the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 7.
She arrived at Oaklawn on Wednesday night after an eight-hour van ride from Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
Finite, a 4-year-old filly from the barn of Steve Asmussen, is the Bayakoa's 9-5 morning-line second choice. The winner of the Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville on Nov. 21, Finite finished fourth as the 2-1 favorite in the Grade I La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., on Dec. 26.
Three of the four other entrants are listed at 6-1 on the morning line, including Istan Council with Joe Talamo listed to ride.
Larry Jones trained Monomoy Girl's maternal grandmother Endless Parade to three stakes wins, including the 2000 one-mile Althea Stakes at Oaklawn. He said he has watched Monomoy Girl's career with a sense of sentimentality.
"She's one of those rare horses that we ever get to envision watching," Jones said. "Do I want to run against her? No. I don't have any grand expectations of doing anything but try to follow her around the track, but I will be able to say, 'Hey, I ran against Monomoy Girl, too.' ''