Idiomatic

Idiomatic won her maiden race at first asking as a 3-year-old at Turfway Park on April 2, 2022. She raced twice more during her 3-year-old season, finishing third both times in races at Churchill Downs and Turfway Park.

Idiomatic began her 4-year-old campaign with an allowance win at Turfway Park on January 4, 2023, and added another allowance win in her following start at Turfway Park on Feb. 16. She then made it three synthetic track wins in a row when she won her first stakes race in the $245,000 Latonia Stakes at Turfway on March 25, topping a nine-horse field by two lengths.

Idiomatic was switched to the dirt and sent to Belmont Park for her next start which came in her graded stakes debut in the Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes on May 6 and recorded a second-place finish.

Idiomatic did get her first dirt track victory in her next start, which came in the Grade 3 $225,000 Shawnee Stakes on June 3 at Churchill Downs. Sent off as the 2.20-1 second choice in a field of seven fillies and mares in the Shawnee, Idiomatic went right to the front and went all the way to secure a 2 1/2-length wire-to-wire win.

In her following start, Idiomatic was victorious once again, this time in the Grade 2 $500,000 Delaware Handicap at the distance of 1 3/16 miles at Delaware Park on July 8, delivering as the heavy favorite in a field of six fillies are mares. In a change of tactics from her prior front running win in the race before, Idiomatic stalked the pace in the DelCap. She challenged the leader in the stretch and eventually prevailed by a hard-fought head over Classy Edition.

Following that win, trainer Brad Cox elevated Idiomatic up to face Grade 1 competition in the $500,000, Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes Aug. 25 at Saratoga Race Course. Breaking from the inside post and racing on a sloppy, sealed track, the filly assumed the early lead under Florent Geroux and kept it through the far turn. Champion and odds-on favorite Nest and 2022 Longines Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath moved up to challenge Idiomatic entering the homestretch, but she found another gear and drew clear to an emphatic four-length victory.

Idiomatic was equally impressive in her next start in the $600,000 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes Oct. 8 at Keeneland Race Course, a “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series Race awarding the winner an expenses-paid berth in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff. She set an uncontested pace in the Grade 1 race and cruised to a dominant win in 1:49.82 to punch her Breeders’ Cup ticket to the Distaff Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park, where she will be one of the favorites.

With a four-race winning streak in tow – all in graded stakes – Idiomatic was tabbed the morning-line favorite in a competitive 40^th anniversary edition of Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park, and she kept that status when the starting gate opened. Jockey Florent Geroux kept his mount in second, closely tracking pacesetter Randomized, and Idiomatic responded well to the change in tactics. She moved up to engage Randomized exiting the far turn of the 1 1/8-mile Distaff and battled with that foe in the stretch before taking a short lead late. Under strong urging, she held on for a game half-length victory over Randomized and fast-closing Le Da Vida to post her third consecutive Grade 1 victory.

Idiomatic’s eighth win of the year in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff left her as one of the winningest horses in the country. No other horse ranked in the top 100 in earnings captured more than six races throughout 2023. Not surprisingly, she received the Eclipse Award as champion older dirt female.

Idiomatic returned from an extended layoff of six months to make her 5-year-old debut on a May 3, 2024, at Churchill Downs in the $1 million Fasig-Tipton La Troienne Stakes and picked up right where she left off before the freshening. The champion racemare pressed pacesetter Dorth Vader, seized command on the final turn in the 1 1/16-mile race, and powered to an 3 3/4-length victory over a sloppy track.

Following her easy win in the La Troienne, things got a lot more difficult for Idiomatic during her 2024 campaign. She was beaten by Randomized head as a 0.70-1 favorite in her next race, which came in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga on June 8. She then opted or a softer spot in her next outing in the Grade 3 $500,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Monmouth Park on July 20, but she had it no easier when pushed to her limit by Soul of an Angel until gutting-out a head decision at 1-9 odds after she lost the lead in the stretch. She paid $2.20 to win.

In her fourth start of 2024, Idiomatic attempted to notch a repeat win in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga, the race that served as her coming-out party at the top level of the sport a year prior. She faced a small but quality field including Randomized in the Aug. 23, 1 1/8-mile test, and was aggressively handled by Florent Geroux to battle that foe for the lead through the first turn and backstretch. Idiomatic shook off Randomized in the far turn and opened up on the field at the top of the stretch, only to tire in the final sixteenth of a mile, just enough for Raging Sea, a multiple graded stakes winner, to rally and prevail by a head, denying her a second Personal Ensign victory.

Idiomatic bounced back from that near-miss with her second consecutive win in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes Oct. 6 at Keeneland. She secured her “Win and You’re In” berth to the Longines Distaff in the 1 1/8-mile Spinster by securing the lead heading into the first turn and controlling matters throughout, with jockey Florent Geroux confirming her widening stretch margin by glancing at the Keeneland video board as horse and rider passed the sixteenth pole.

Unfortunately, a minor left knee injury prevented Idiomatic from bidding for a repeat win in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and she was retired in October 2024. She still won a second consecutive Eclipse Award as champion older dirt female.

Idiomatic was bred in Kentucky by Curlin out of the mare Lockdown by First Defence.