Cox resurrects stable after Midwest divorce

HOT SPRINGS - No Midwest, no problem.

Brad Cox, 33, continues to find the winner’s circle at Oaklawn Park, despite not training this year for Midwest Thoroughbreds Inc., the powerhouse Chicago-based ownership team of Richard and Karen Papiese.

Midwest won a North American record 542 races in 2012 and also led the country in purse earnings($10,150,498).

Midwest was the runaway winner of last year’s owner’s title at Oaklawn with 42 victories.

Cox saddled half of Midwest’s winners and finished with 22 victories overall to rank third in the standings.

But Cox and Midwest split last summer, leaving the trainer to essentially rebuild his stable from scratch.

Scratch, in this case, was two horses.

Cox had about 25 horses for Midwest at last year’s Oaklawn meeting.

“What do you do?” Cox said during training hours Friday morning. “You get on the phone and start calling people. Actually, you want it to be in the Form that you lost horses. Bad press is better than no press.”

It’s been good press at the 2013 Oaklawn meeting, where Cox has compiled a 27.7 winning percentage and 55.5 in-the-money percentage with 10 wins, 2 second-place finishes and 8 thirds from 36 starters.

Cox began Friday tied for 13th in the trainer standings.

The two trainers Midwest employs at Oaklawn, Jamie Ness (13) and Roger Brueggemann (3), have combined for 16 victories at the meeting.

“I feel like we’ve held our own,” Cox said. “We’ve rebounded from losing a lot of the horses. We’ve rebounded, I feel like, in a short period of time. I’m happy, but I’m not satisfied. We’ve got to keep going and keep growing.”

Cox returned to Oaklawn with 10 horses and his stable, made up mostly of hard-knocking claimers, and is now at 18 after acquiring three new clients.

Cox has replenished stock through aggressive claiming and said he hopes his numbers eventually reach 40.

“I feel like we’ve come a long, long way in the last six months,” Cox said. “I think 40 is a good number. I would like to have a couple of runners every day.”

It’s the second time in three years that Cox has had to rebuild his stable after splitting with Midwest.

Cox said he trained for Midwest for about seven months before being fired in 2010, reducing his stable to around five.

Cox and Midwest reunited in March 2011 before splitting again last July.

Cox said he remains in contact with Richard Papiese, adding there are no hard feelings toward the owner.

“I think it was best both ways,” Cox said “I really wasn’t wanting to do what they wanted me to do. They wanted me to go to Chicago when I left here. Didn’t want to do that. Kentucky’s home for me.”

Cox grew up in Louisville, Ky., two blocks from historic Churchill Downs.

Since starting his first horse in 2004, Cox has continually maintained a robust winning percentage.

According to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization, Cox has started 951 horses and won 221 races - a 23.2 percent strike rate.

“We don’t try to do anything special,” Cox said. “We just try to place them where they can compete. Try to claim horses and move them up if we can. If we can’t, we put them where they can win.”