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Two weeks of postponements and an off track were not enough to knock champion Essential Quality off his game.
Making his first start since last November’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Essential Quality drew off for a 4 1/4-length win Saturday (February 27) at Oaklawn Park in the Grade 3, US$750,000 Southwest Stakes. The Godolphin home bred picked up another 10 points on the Road to the 2021 Kentucky Derby, giving him 40 overall.
The Southwest marked a 2021 debut for Essential Quality, who garnered the 2020 Eclipse Award for Champion 2-Year-Old Colt. The Tapit colt won on debut at Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Derby undercard, then posted back-to-back Grade 1 triumphs at Keeneland in the Breeders’ Futurity and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
"You never know when they go 2 to 3," Essential Quality trainer Brad Cox told FS2's "America's Day at the Races" after the win. "Just because they’re training well doesn’t meant they’ll move forward. But I thought he moved forward today. I thought it was a huge effort. It’s what I was hoping to see."
Oaklawn's Southwest was originally supposed to run Feb. 15 but was delayed 12 days due to harsh winter conditions at the Hot Springs, Arkansas., track. Then Saturday, as the race was finally to occur, rain showers resulted in the track being listed as sloppy.
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