Known for her consistency, grit, and unmatched will to win, Monomoy Girl captured the hearts of racing fans around the world. Her 10 graded stakes wins, including seven Grade 1s, not only solidified her status as one of the greatest female racehorses of her generation but also added a crowning achievement to an already illustrious career. In a division loaded with talented stakes winners, Monomoy Girl stood head and shoulders above them all for two seasons, her two Breeders’ Cup Distaff victories defining a career steeped in excellence.

Monomoy Girl gets a bath at Churchill Downs. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Monomoy Girl’s pedigree shines purple with connections to the World Championships. Her sire, Tapizar, won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile by 2 ¼ lengths in 2012 and her broodmare sire, Henny Hughes, finished second in the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile while logging four graded stakes victories at 2 and 3. Henny Hughes also happens to be the sire of Beholder, a three-time Breeders’ Cup winner herself, deepening Monomoy Girl’s pedigree connections to the year-end championship event.

Breeder Brendan Gallagher of Franklin Park Farm saw Drumette in foal to Tapizar at the 2014 Keeneland November breeding stock sale and picked her up in partnership with Michael Hernon of Highfield Ranch. The young stallion started his stud career at Gainesway Farm, where Hernon served as director of sales for 24 years until 2020. The partners, including Gallagher’s wife, Olive, bought Drumette for $75,000, and brought her to Franklin Park, where she foaled a chestnut filly in the wee hours of March 26, 2015.

The filly joined Gainesway’s consignment at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale, where she caught the eye of bloodstock agent Liz Crow. Acting on behalf of a partnership that included Sol Kumin of Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, and Michael Cohen, Crow was able to secure the Drumette yearling for $100,000.

Kumin shared the origin behind the name of his future champion mare. Drumette’s filly came to the races with the name Monomoy Girl after the Monomoy area of Nantucket, where Madaket Stable partner Jim Carey lives and in honor of Carey’s wife and daughters. Readied for the races by Louisville native Brad Cox, the promising prospect debuted at Indiana Grand (now Horseshoe Indianapolis) on Sept. 5, 2017, her 3 ¾-length win foreshadowing what was to come.

Grit and Glory

Cox brought Monomoy Girl to Churchill Downs for the final three starts of her juvenile season, winning twice, including her first stakes victory in the Rags to Riches Stakes in October. She finished second to Road to Victory in her graded stakes debut in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes, in which she was unable to hold off a powerful rally from the eventual winner. Her 3-for-4 record made her one of the fillies to watch ahead of the 2018 Kentucky Oaks.

Dominant in 2018 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Monomoy Girl started her 3-year-old season in Louisiana, where she earned her first graded stakes win in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes. A win in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland gave trainer Brad Cox his first Grade 1 before she earned him a second in the Kentucky Oaks. There, she faced a stacked field that included Wonder Gadot, who would win the Queen’s Plate later that season, and future champion Midnight Bisou. Monomoy Girl seized the lead on the far turn and dueled with Wonder Gadot down the stretch before gutting out a half-length victory.

The second half of her 2018 season included Grade 1 wins in the Acorn Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks; she then finished first in the Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing but was disqualified to second after losing focus and drifting in during the stretch, interfering with second-place Midnight Bisou. Monomoy Girl redeemed herself at the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, the site of her Kentucky Oaks win. Once again, she met Wonder Gadot and Midnight Bisou, plus 2017 Kentucky Oaks victor Abel Tasman and Grade 1 Spinster Stakes winner Blue Prize, but had no trouble taking over from Wonder Gadot around the far turn and keeping the rest at bay down the stretch. Kumin shared that it “was a little bit more of a relief when she put a stamp on the end of her year and won that race.”

Kumin added, “She just felt like she was the best horse in the division. I think we would have been really disappointed if she didn’t win. She just seemed to be at the top of her game all year.”

Her triumphant season earned Monomoy Girl the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly and brought her a fan following that eagerly awaited what she would do at age 4. However, her 2019 season was one beset by setbacks. First, colic delayed her scheduled spring debut. She returned to Cox’s barn in mid-July only to strain a muscle during a workout, her connections opting to end her 4-year-old season altogether.

At 5, Monomoy Girl found her elite form again, her consistency echoing her 2018 championship season. She started with an easy 2 ¾-length win at Churchill Downs in mid-May and then earned her first graded stakes victory in more than a year in the Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes at Belmont Park July 11. With an eye toward another Breeders’ Cup Distaff, she next targeted the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes on the COVID-delayed Kentucky Oaks undercard, defeating a field that included Horologist and Vexatious.

In early November, Keeneland played host to a pandemic-quieted Breeders’ Cup, but that did not keep the stars away. In her second Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Monomoy Girl faced Preakness Stakes winner Swiss Skydiver; Dunbar Road, the Delaware Handicap victor; and Beholder Mile winner Ce Ce.

Monomoy Girl bided her time on the outside in fourth until near the top of the stretch in the 2020 Distaff. She powered away to win by 1¾ lengths, her 4-for-4 season earning Monomoy Girl a second Eclipse Award championship, this time as older dirt female.

For Kumin, that second Distaff “was more of a surprise. It was obviously pretty cool because after horses go through injuries like that, they don’t always come back at the top of their game. It just felt a little bit different. It felt a little bit less pressured than the first one did, which was pretty awesome.”

Close to the Heart

Kumin and Cox celebrate 2018 Distaff win. (Anne M. Eberhardt/BloodHorse)

Entered in the Fasig-Tipton’s 2020 November Sale, Monomoy Girl sold for a whopping $9.5 million to Spendthrift Farm. She returned to the racetrack for her 6-year-old season, racing for the partnership of MyRacehorse Stable, Spendthrift, and Madaket Stables and winning the Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park before finishing second to Letruska in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap. A sesamoid injury later that season prompted her retirement with 14 wins in 17 starts and $4,776,818 in earnings. She never finished worse than second.

Reflecting on Monomoy Girl’s place among the stars that he has owned, including 2018 Triple Crown winner and newly minted Hall of Famer Justify, Kumin said that “she’s in the top group. For me, there are two fillies that stand above everyone else, and that’s Lady Eli and Monomoy Girl.”

Kumin explained, “I think when you buy them as a baby, and when you name them, and when they run in your silks, all of those things allow you to get even closer to the horse.”

When asked what makes this dual Breeders’ Cup champion special, Kumin pinpointed “her competitive spirit. She liked to compete, she liked to fight, and she knew where the wire was and would find a way to win.”

That spirit carried Monomoy Girl through the challenges of injury and brought her back to the winner’s circle time after time, leaving racing fans everywhere with memories of her grit and grace.