The record for stakes victories by a trainer at any Keeneland meet is four – a mark that is in jeopardy because of the banner meet the Brad Cox barn is having.  

Cox, the Spring Meet’s leading trainer with eight victories through April 19, has won the April 7 Lafayette with Stonestreet Stables’ Corona Bolt; the April 8 Shakertown (G2) with Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel and Madaket Stable’s Caravel; and the April 15 Stonestreet Lexington (G3) with Godolphin’s First Mission. He tied the mark April 16 when Flurry Racing Stables and Hoffman Family Racing’s Key of Life won the Beaumont (G2) Presented by Keeneland Select. 

“We didn’t even think she would run here, and it was a last-minute decision,” said Blake Cox, his father’s Keeneland assistant. 

Stakes win No. 5 could be Flurry Racing Stables’ Interstatedaydream, the 6-5 morning line favorite for Friday’s $300,000 Baird Doubledogdare (G3). 

“This race was the target all along,” Cox said of Interstatedaydream, who returned to the races off a 6½-month layoff to run third in the Azeri (G2) on March 11 behind Secret Oath and Clairiere. “She had a tough year, a long year last year, and we gave her the time off to grow up and be a good 4-year-old.” 

Regular rider Florent Geroux will be aboard Friday as Intertstatedaydream makes her second Keeneland start. She was third in the 2022 Central Bank Ashland (G1) behind eventual champion Nest. 

In addition to Cox, three trainers have won four stakes previously during the Spring Meet: Ben Jones (1948), Todd Pletcher (2011) and Chad Brown (2018). Trainers who have accomplished the feat during the Fall Meet are D. Wayne Lukas (1994 and 1995), Mark Casse (2016) and Graham Motion (2016). 

“You come in here loaded and hope you’ll have a good meet,” Blake Cox said. “We caught some breaks and had some that didn’t go our way like the (Central Bank) Ashland (G1, when Punchbowl ran second, beaten a half-length) and the (Toyota) Blue Grass (G1, when Verifying ran second, beaten a neck).” 

Should Interstatedaydream not deliver the record setter Friday, Cox will have one more chance Saturday when he sends out Peachtree Stable’s Tawny Port in the 92^nd running of the $300,000 Ben Ali (G3). 

“He’s doing good and we are putting blinkers on him to get him more involved early,” Cox said of Tawny Port, winner of last spring’s Stonestreet Lexington. “We are expecting big things.”