Photo:

Eclipse Sportswire composite

While it may be too early to pick out one horse to win the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks in 2025, it appears far easier to select the winning trainer. There’s an excellent chance the triumphant filly will come from the barn of Brad Cox.

Bringing back memories of the dominating day when D. Wayne Lukas sent out the first three finishers of the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and then won the Kentucky Oaks the following spring, the best three 2-year-old fillies of 2024 arguably are trained by Cox.

With less than five months to go until the first Friday in May, the Louisville native is enjoying an embarrassment of riches within the division led by the unbeaten graded-stakes winners Immersive, Good Cheer, and Muhimma.

Muhimma joined her stablemates among the ranks of top Kentucky Oaks contenders with a stylish win Saturday’s Demoiselle Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct.

Off two very impressive sprint victories in Kentucky to begin her career, the pretty gray daughter of Munnings was clearly the filly to beat among a field of 10 while making her stakes debut. A winner of her first two starts by a combined margin of 13 lengths at Churchill Downs, she was hammered down to odds of 2-5 despite stretching to 1 1/8 miles on Saturday.

Breaking from the rail post, Muhimma began a beat slowly but soon assumed the early lead. Setting all the pace comfortably through a half-mile in 48.24 seconds, she was asked for a bit more on the far turn and lengthened her advantage entering the stretch. From there she had plenty left to score a one-length victory over late-running Ballerina d’Oro, who was way ahead of the rest.

It should be noted the final time of 1:49.84 for Muhimma in winning the Demoiselle was more than half a second faster than Poster ran winning a competitive finish in the Remsen (G2) one race earlier.

Winning rider Florent Géroux also hinted that there is still plenty of room for improvement for the talented filly.

“She started to cruise through very reasonable fractions. From there I gave her a few reminders down the lane to keep her busy to the wire,” Géroux said. “She was kind of looking around at the end. If anything I think she lost a little bit of focus.”

A $700,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Shadwell Stable, Muhimma likely inherited her speed from her highly successful sire but has plenty of distance influence on her female side. Out of Tapit mare Princesa Carolina, who was a stakes winner going 1 5/16 miles at
Kentucky Downs, she is a granddaughter of the excellent mare Pure Clan.

As good as Muhimma has been in her first three starts, she is only one part of a formidable fleet of young, Cox-trained fillies. In fact, she still only resides down in third on the barn’s depth chart.

Surely the Eclipse Award for champion 2-year-old filly was locked up the moment when the Godolphin homebred Immersive rolled away from her competition at Santa Anita in the division’s most important race.

Currently stabled at Fair Grounds in anticipation of a 3-year-old campaign, the winner of the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies looked better with each of her four starts. After a debut victory at Saratoga, the daughter of Nyquist added Grade 1 wins in the Spinaway and Alcibiades before scoring out west to clinch the division title.

Then there is Good Cheer, who is the only juvenile filly who can match Immersive on the eye test. Like the division leader, she is a Godophin homebred and also unbeaten in four career starts. Already a three-time winner at the host track of the Kentucky Oaks, she has beaten her competition by a combined margin of 32 1/2 lengths.

A daughter of sensational sire Medaglia d’Oro, she has been impressive each time out, including comprehensive victories in both the Rags to Riches Stakes and the Golden Rod (G2) at Churchill Downs. She stands in second behind Immersive in the points race to the Kentucky Oaks.

With Immersive, Good Cheer and Muhimma, Cox would appear to have all he needs to dominate in 2025, but there are other promising fillies in the barn. For example, he recently unveiled Chasten to win at first asking. The Into Mischief filly is a half-sister to champion Idiomatic and finished with a flourish when winning her debut at Churchill Downs.

Having already won the prestigious race twice with Monomoy Girl in 2018 and Shedaresthedevil in 2020, Brad Cox is well-positioned for another one in 2025. With an embarrassment of riches in the 2-year-old fillies division, it would appear all roads must go through him to win next spring’s Kentucky Oaks.