Idiomatic, all but certain to be named champion older female of 2023 at Thursday’s Eclipse Awards, is returning for another season of racing as a 5-year-old of 2024.  Garrett O’Rourke, general manager of Juddmonte USA, said in a Monday morning text message that Idiomatic was in light training at Juddmonte and would join the Fair Grounds string of trainer Brad Cox in two weeks.  By Curlin out of Lockdown, by First Defence, Idiomatic was bred by Juddmonte in Kentucky and was raised at the farm, where she’s currently legging up. Juddmonte’s founder, Khalid Abdullah, passed away in January 2021 but his family has remained committed to maintaining the globally prominent racing and breeding program he built over four decades. Idiomatic has been at Juddmonte since shortly after she won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita as Juddmonte determined whether she would return to racetrack training or be bred this year. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Owing greatly to her tremendous height and scope, Idiomatic bloomed late. She raced twice during the spring of 2022, didn’t start again for seven months, but in December 2022 began a long campaign that would take her from relative obscurity into the limelight. Idiomatic made four starts at Turfway Park last winter and spring, losing her comeback race before winning three in a row, the last in stakes competition. Cox switched Idiomatic from Turfway’s Tapeta to dirt for the Grade 2 Ruffian, a one-turn mile at Belmont Park on May 5. Idiomatic finished second but would not lose again during 2023. She won the Grade 3 Shawnee at Churchill, overcame a disastrous start to land the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap, then was dominant in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland.  Idiomatic had to work winning the Distaff by a half-length, but win she did, capping a long, exceedingly successful season that made her one of several candidates for 2023 Horse of the Year. Juddmonte and Cox clearly think there is more of the same coming this year. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.