Travel Column Circles Field, Overcomes Trouble To Win Golden Rod Stakes

Travel Column (Frosted) wins the Golden Rod at Churchill Downs on 11.28.2020. Florent Geroux up, Brad Cox trainer, Oxo Equine owner.

OXO Equine’s Travel Column made an impressive run to avoid trouble at the eighth pole in winning Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. The 2-year-old daughter from the first crop of Frosted was last early and passed all eight of her rivals to win by a length, stopping the clock in 1:43.98 for 1 1/16 miles over the fast main track.

The final time was only the seventh sub-1:44 clocking in the race’s history, which has been contested at the distance since 1980. Also, it was :00.54 faster than Keepmeinmind’s win in the Kentucky Jockey Club (GII).

Trained by Brad Cox, the filly was ridden to victory at odds of 5-1 by jockey Florent Geroux.

The win earned Travel Column 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks.

Farsighted broke fastest of all and rattled off early quarter-mile splits of :23.77 and :48.21 with Travel Column last down the backstretch after she was crowed between horses at the start from post position 4. As Simply Ravishing took the lead around the turn, Travel Column weaved her way into contention only to be bottled up down on the inside behind the leading pack, which included Simply Ravishing, a fading Farsighted on the rail, a three-wide Coach and a four-wide Clairiere.

Inside the final three-sixteenths of a mile, Geroux shifted Travel Column to the far outside around the threesome. Clairiere had put away the eventual third and fourth place finishers with a furlong to go but a determined Travel Column was finally in the clear and displayed a powerful late kick to get up for the seemingly improbable win.

“We broke a step slow and I tried to get her to relax as much as I could while saving as much ground as possible,” Geroux said. “I got sort of a pocket trip around the far turn and when Simply Ravishing was flattening out, I just decided to go around everyone. She had a ton of energy left and was able to get up to win.”

Prior to the Golden Rod, Travel Column missed the break in the G1 Alcibiades at Keeneland on Oct. 2 and finished third behind Simply Ravishing and Crazy Beautiful.

“(Travel Column) overcame a lot of adversity today,” Cox said. “This was the game plan all along to run in this race and give her the time she needs after the Alcibiades. She was very impressive breaking that slow and being stopped several times. Mentally that showed her maturity but I still think she is learning. I thought Coach ran a really good race to get third as well.”

Behind fourth-place finisher Simply Ravishing, who entered the Golden Rod after a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (GI) 22 days ago, it was Princess Theorem, Alexandria, Lady Lilly, Lady Traveler and Farsighted. No Mo’ Spending was scratched.

“No real excuses,” said Simply Ravishing’s jockey Robby Albarado.

Bred in Kentucky by Mr. and Mrs. Bayne Welker Jr. and Denali Stud, Travel Column was an $850,000 yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select sale. Out of the multiple stakes-winning Victory Gallop mare Swingit, the filly is a half-sister to $2 million-earner Neolithic (Harlan’s Holiday).

Her win in the Golden Rod improves her record to two victories from three starts and earnings of $209,184.