Love Reigns favored in Coronation Cup despite three-month break; $109,629 pick six carryover

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Wesley Ward said he felt confident at midstretch of Keeneland’s Limestone Stakes that he would win the race. And he did. Only not with Lady Hollywood, who Ward felt was on her way to certain victory, but Love Reigns, who overcame traffic trouble in early stretch to run down her stablemate and capture her 3-year-old debut in popular and impressive fashion.

Love Reigns has been idle nearly three months since that victory. She finally will return to action Friday at Saratoga when going postward the likely favorite once again in the $150,000 Coronation Cup, the second of two stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the card along with the $135,000 Wilton.

Friday's card includes a $109,629 carryover in the pick six after the bet went unhit on opening day. The Coronation Cup is the penultimate leg in the sequence, with the wager starting with the fifth race.

Love Reigns, a daughter of U S Navy Flag owned by Stonestreet Stables, appeared in deep trouble when forced to take up sharply behind a wall of horses while attempting to launch her bid a furlong from the wire of the 5 1/2-furlong Limestone over the Keeneland turf on April 14. But to his credit, jockey Joel Rosario never gave up in the face of adversity, quickly angling Love Reigns to the rail before splitting rivals and driving her to a well-deserved half-length decision over her uncoupled mate.

“I really thought I was going to win that race with my other filly [Lady Hollywood] when she kind of opened up at midstretch, especially after seeing [Love Reigns] get kind of jammed up at the eighth pole,” Ward recalled. “But Joel got her angled down near the inside, and she finished strong. It was a great effort.”

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The win was the fourth in six lifetime starts for Love Reigns, whose only two defeats have come in graded stakes. She finished fourth in the Group 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot during the spring of 2022 and eighth following a wide trip as the tepid 3-1 favorite nearly five months later in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

Ward said he was originally pointing Love Reigns to the Group 1 King’s Stand at Royal Ascot for her next start along with 4-year-old Twilight Gleaming, who ultimately did compete in the race, but called an audible after the pair worked together over the Keeneland turf.

“Obviously, one is a 4-year-old and the other a 3-year-old and Twilight Gleaming was a little better when they worked together, so I just decided to keep this filly home and point for this race at Saratoga instead,” Ward explained. “She’s doing well. Let’s just hope it stays on the grass.”

The forecast on Wednesday called for a 60 percent to 70 percent chance of rain on Friday.

Love Reigns’s stiffest challenge in the Coronation Cup could come from My Sweet Affair, who finished third, beaten just a length, when the pair met for the first time in the Limestone. In two subsequent outings, My Sweet Affair finished fourth in the Mamzelle at Churchill Downs and most recently second, beaten a half-length by Bosserati, in Laurel Park’s Stormy Blues on June 18. She’ll have an opportunity to avenge that setback as Bosserati also is signed on for the Coronation Cup.

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Bosserati registered her third consecutive victory and first stakes success in the Stormy Blues but figures to face plenty of early pace pressure once again in her local debut from speedsters Wildhawk and Unified Alliance. That pair finished second and third, respectively, when squaring off in the Jersey Girl over the main track on June 11 at Belmont Park. They will be making their turf debuts if the Limestone stays on grass.

Love Appeals, a winner of 2 of 3 career starts, all on grass, also figures to attract plenty of attention in a field that includes Anna’s Arabesque, Violet Gibson, and main-track-only entrant L Street Lady.

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