Cooper and Lucarelli juveniles tangle again in Washington Cup races

Trainer Kay Cooper is hoping Sunday will be a repeat of Aug. 22 when she upset both stakes for 2-year-olds at Emerald Downs. The difference this time is both A View From Above and Koron will have targets on their back as the favorites in the Washington Cup Juvenile Colts and Geldings and Washington Cup Juvenile Filly.

Both races are restricted to horses foaled in Washington or sired by a stallion standing in Washington in 2018. They are worth $50,000 each and will be contested at 6 1/2 furlongs.

The 10-race card gets underway at 2:30 p.m. Pacific.

First up in race 7 is the Juvenile Filly where Koron will be a short price over four horses.

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The daughter of Nationhood showed plenty of promise when she won a maiden special weight in her debut on Aug. 7, but was sent off at 14-1 in the $49,500 Barbara Shinpoch. She dueled with heavily favored Gold N Glitter before drawing off to win the 6 1/2-furlong dash by 5 1/2 lengths.

Koron will break from post 4 with Kevin Orozco retaining the mount.

The Frank Lucarelli-trained Gold N Glitter will try to make amends for her loss in the Shinpoch. A daughter of Harbor the Gold, Gold N Glitter was made the favorite due to her 9 1/2-length romp going 4 1/2 furlongs in a $25,000 maiden claimer July 11.

She will break from the rail with Javier Matias riding.

A View From Above paid $10.40 for his win over the Lucarelli-trained Cobra Jet in the WTBA Lads.

A son of Abraaj, A View From Above won his only other start by seven lengths on July 11 in a maiden special weight race. In the Lads, he broke on top, and after posting a wicked half-mile time of 43.81 seconds was able to hold off Cobra Jet, who actually made the lead in midstretch.

With a bullet half-mile move fired Sept. 5, A View From Above is certain to show speed again on Sunday. He will break from post 3 with Julien Couton riding.

Prior to his loss in the Lads, Cobra Jet won his first two starts by a combined 20 1/4 lengths. Lucarelli is looking for redemption for Cobra Jet and Gold N Glitter on Sunday.

“We tried to do the right thing by letting Cobra Jet lay off the speed, and it looked like it was going to work after we saw the half-mile time,” said Lucarelli. “I was a bit surprised that after Cobra Jet made the lead A View From Above came back to beat him. The track can favor speed, so this time, depending on how they break, we are going to be sending both Cobra Jet and Gold N Glitter right from the start.”

Cobra Jet drew post 6, from where jockey Juan Gutierrez figures to try and gun him to the lead. A View From Above might have something say about that, though.