Empress Tigress 2 for 2 following Coronation Cup victory

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - What Empress Tigress lacked in experience she certainly made up for with sheer speed and talent when parlaying a perfect pace-stalking trip into a half-length victory over the late-striding Poppy Flower in Friday’s $150,000 Coronation Cup at Saratoga.

Four of the 12 3-year-old fillies originally entered for the race were scratched, including Twilight Gleaming, who would have gone postward a heavy favorite had she run.

Empress Tigress came into the 5 1/2-furlong Coronation Cup having made just one previous start, that outing coming over the synthetic surface at Woodbine on May 22. She won that race by six widening lengths as the even-money favorite and earned an 86 Beyer Speed Figure.

With John Velazquez aboard for the first time, Empress Tigress stalked the early pace of Mystic Eyes, stuck her head in front upon settling into the stretch, drew well clear, then withstood a belated bid from Poppy Flower.

The latter acted up in the gate just prior to the start briefly unseating her rider, Jose Ortiz. Racing near the rear of the field in the run down the backstretch following a bit of a slow start, Poppy Flower swung widest leaving the turn and was going best of all down the center of the course at the end.

Derrynane encountered traffic difficulties on a couple of occasions. She was shuffled back to last in early stretch, then rallied belatedly to finish third, 2 1/4 lengths behind Poppy Flower. She was followed, in order, by the slow-starting, 9-5 favorite Static Fire, Artos, Lady Scarlet, Mystic Eyes, and Sweet Solare who was eased to the wire far back.

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Trained by Jonathan Thomas for Augustin Stable, Empress Tigress completed the distance over a firm course in 1:01.70 and paid $9.20.

“We ran her at Woodbine for her first start because it was a straight 3-year-old filly maiden [race] going five and one-half. She was ready to run so we just took her where we could,” Thomas explained. “Then we were kind of waiting to bring her up here [for the Coronation Cup] because I loved the five and one-half furlong aspect of this race [as well].”

Thomas said the scratch of Twilight Gleaming made it an easier decision to keep the lightly raced Empress Tigress in the race.

“The scratch re-enforced the decision to stay in, although we probably would have stayed in anyway,” Thomas added. “She was training well and you only get these opportunities so many times so you have to take advantage of it when you can.”

Thomas said he had nothing picked out just yet for Empress Tigress’ next start but would probably stay the course, keeping her sprinting on the turf.

“She’s so fast. She might stretch out, but I don’t see any reason to change what we’re doing at the moment,” Thomas noted.