Bodacious Bay Pays Off by Winning Cotillion

Bodacious Bay showed her quality earlier this year in winning a maiden race at Churchill Downs in her third career start before placing in the July 25 Monmouth Oaks (G3) for trainer Rudy Brisset and then-owners Storyteller Racing and Breffni Farm. Those efforts, along with her pedigree and upside, sparked C2 Racing Stable, Miller Racing, St Elias Stable, Mathis Stable, BAG Racing Stables, Carr Legacy Racing, and Steve Taub to buy her privately for what new trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. described as "a lot of money." Money that was apparently well spent. Racing Sept. 19 at Parx Racing in the Cotillion Stakes (G1), the 3-year-old filly paid dividends for her new connections by defeating Always a Runner and Measure in the $1 million race for 3-year-old fillies. She earned $564,000 and sent her residual value as an eventual broodmare soaring, as a daughter of Not This Time out of the graded-placed Mineshaft mare Bodacious Babe. She is now 2-3-0 in five starts with a career bankroll of $708,496. She is the second graded stakes winner for her dam following Royal Spa (Violence), who captured a couple graded races last year. "I mean, this was big," Joseph said of Saturday's victory. Florida-based jockey Micah Husbands, riding Bodacious Bay for the first time, had her well positioned. He rated her in second for the first half of the 1 1/16-mile race, as stablemate My Miss Mo, who had beaten her in the Monmouth Oaks, established comfortable splits of :23.81 and :47.99. Bodacious Bay then made her move on the second turn, taking over with 6 furlongs in 1:11.94. She sustained momentum to the wire, finishing in 1:43.60. Bodacious Bay paid $12.20 to win. "I was loaded the whole way," Husbands said. "I was just sitting there on a lot of horse. By the half-mile pole, she wanted to go a little earlier than I thought, and I didn't want to get in her way, so I just let her cruise up and tried to bide my time. She finished it off like a monster. " The win marked the fourth grade 1 that Husbands and Joseph have won together in 2025, following the success of Claret Beret in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1), Eunomia in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1), and In Our Time in the Ladies Turf Sprint Stakes (G1T) at Kentucky Downs. "He hasn't even ridden in 1,000 races, and he steps up in these big moments and showed composure," Joseph said. Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Always a Runner, behind horses on the backstretch and early on the second turn, shook clear of traffic to launch a bid under Jose Ortiz, but her rally ultimately flattened out. She finished 3 1/4 lengths behind the winner, holding off a final surge from Measure by a neck for the place. Bodacious Bay's emergence comes into a 3-year-old filly division after Alabama Stakes (G1) winner My Gun's Loaded was declared out for the rest of 2026 because of injury, trainer Chad Brown told Daily Racing Form Sept. 18. Counting Stars, who had won two grade 1s in June and July and likely holds the current edge for championship honors, was third behind My Gun's Loaded and Measure in the Alabama. Joseph said he is excited for what the future holds for Bodacious Bay, mentioning her fine pedigree. Her sire is first in North America by progeny earnings and stood for $250,000 earlier this year at Taylor Made Stallions in Kentucky. "So we feel like she could develop into probably the best filly next year," he said.