LOUISVILLE, Ky. – What if you had the Kentucky Derby winner in your barn and didn’t even know it? “It’s so odd that it doesn’t even sound right,” said Brad Cox. While everyone waits for the Medina Spirit controversy to play itself out, Cox is going about everyday business at Churchill Downs with Mandaloun, the 2021 Derby runner-up who would become the official winner if Medina Spirit ultimately is disqualified for a positive post-race test for a banned raceday medication. There’s still no established timetable as to when that might happen. :: Enhance your handicapping with DRF’s Belmont Park Clocker Report For Cox, it’s an extraordinarily unusual situation, to say the least. “Everybody is asking me, ‘What’s it feel like?’ ” he said. “Well, I don’t know. It’s a feeling I’ve never had before. It’d be cool . . . I guess? It’d be something you’d mark off your bucket list, but something you’d want to do again, maybe in a different way. It’s certainly not the way you’d expect to win a race, especially as something as special as the Kentucky Derby.” In the meantime, Mandaloun is training toward something other than the June 5 Belmont Stakes, said Cox. Following consultation with Garrett O’Rourke of the colt’s owner-breeder, Juddmonte Farms, Cox said the primary summer goal for Mandaloun is the $1 million Haskell, a 1 1/8-mile race to be run July 17 at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. “It’s possible he could run before then, although we haven’t pinpointed anything definite yet,” said Cox. The Grade 3 Matt Winn, a 1 1/16-mile race next Saturday [May 29] at Churchill is one possibility, he said. “We’re not going about anything differently,” said Cox. Mandaloun, beaten just a half-length in the Derby, had his first post-Derby breeze last Saturday, going a half-mile in 48.20 seconds at Churchill while Cox was in Baltimore for Preakness weekend at Pimlico. The decision not to run Mandaloun in the Preakness was made shortly after the Derby, and “we didn’t want to get away from that,” said Cox, even after the positive post-race test for Medina Spirit was revealed May 9 and, conceivably, a possible Triple Crown bid would have been in effect for Mandaloun. Meanwhile, the Belmont is a go for Cox’s other top 3-year-old Essential Quality, fourth as the favorite in the May 1 Derby. The Godolphin homebred will breeze again Saturday at Churchill after also breezing an easy half-mile last Saturday in 50.80 seconds. “We are preparing him for the Belmont,” said Cox. Essential Quality is part of a sizable field shaping up for the 153rd Belmont. Various outlets have published preliminary odds lines, and the gray colt is among the early lukewarm favorites, along with Rombauer and Hot Rod Charlie. Rombauer, already at Belmont with trainer Michael McCarthy, was a 3 1/2-length winner of the Preakness, while Hot Rod Charlie was third in the Derby, beaten just a length by Medina Spirit. :: DRF Bets players get free Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Click to learn more.  Other confirmed probables for the Belmont include Known Agenda, Bourbonic, and Overtook, all trained by Todd Pletcher; Rebel’s Romance, unraced since winning the March 27 UAE Derby by 5 1/2 lengths for Godolphin; Rock Your World and Brooklyn Strong, both well-beaten in the Derby; and France Go de Ina, a distant seventh in the Preakness. Midnight Bourbon, second in the Preakness, and Keepmeinmind, fourth in the Preakness, also are under serious consideration for the Belmont. If the decision is made to send Midnight Bourbon, he also could be among the favorites. Belmont entries close June 1, with the field limited to 16.