Originator fresh for Coronation Cup

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After a busy and somewhat productive first half of the year, Originator kicks off the second half of her 3-year-old campaign as a contender in a seemingly wide-open $100,000 Coronation Cup on Monday at Saratoga.

A field of 10 was entered for the 5 1/2-furlong turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies with only one horse, Factorofwon, having won a stakes race.

Originator, a debut winner at Gulfstream for trainer Ian Wilkes in January, is coming out of a second-place finish to Road to Victory in the Alywow Stakes at Woodbine on June 9. Road to Victory, the only horse to defeat Monomoy Girl, came back to run second in the Grade 2 Mother Goose on June 30.

The Alywow was the fifth race of the year for Originator. She was given a freshening after that and has come back with a strong work tab.

“Her race at Woodbine was a good race; that was a nice filly that beat her,” Wilkes said. “I backed off her after I sent her to Woodbine and sort of pointed to this race.”

Jose Ortiz, aboard for Wilkes’s lone winner of the meet thus far, has the call.

Mominou and Broadway Run finished a half-length apart in a first-level allowance race at Belmont on May 31. Mominou came back to run second in her first try at the second-level allowance condition, losing to the the 4-year-old filly Fear No Evil, a four-time winner.

“The two times she’s gotten beat were against older fillies,” trainer Jimmy Toner said. “Since we put her on the grass she’s turned everything around. She’s a nice filly. We get to run her against straight 3-year-olds and see where she stacks up.”

Broadway Run, trained by John Terranova, won her debut at odds of 50-1 before running second to Mominou 26 days later.

“I thought she’d make an impact, but I didn’t know she’d win first time out,” Terranova said. “We’re cutting back a little bit but she’s fast. My filly’s training like she’s going to go forward. She’s really sharp. She wasn’t working like this before.”

Factorofwon took the Black Pearl Stakes going down the hill at Santa Anita in May. She is coming off a second-place finish in the Stormy Blues Stakes at Laurel on July 7 and is now making her first start for trainer Christophe Clement.

Trainer Chad Brown sends out the uncoupled entry of Brattata, who finished second in her lone start at 5 1/2 furlongs, and Lady Suebee, who cuts back to a sprint after finishing fifth in the Wild Applause Stakes at a mile. Two starts back, Lady Suebee won a first-level allowance going six furlongs over the Belmont turf.

Closer Still, Classy Dancer, and Flashly round out the field.