Pace should suit Coach in Pippin Stakes
Coach could get the right kind of pace setup on Saturday when she chases after her second straight win at the meet in the $150,000 Pippin at Oaklawn Park.
There are a handful of speed horses making up the field, and Coach could settle into an ideal stalking position in the race that serves as the season’s first local stepping-stone to the Apple Blossom Handicap.
The Pippin drew seven fillies and mares. It will be run at a mile in a race that ends at the sixteenth pole. The field incudes Miss Bigly, winner of the Tranquility Lake at Del Mar; Breeze Rider, who is looking for her third straight stakes win after tallies on synthetic and turf surfaces; and Josie, a stakes winner proven over the track at Oaklawn.
Coach won an allowance at Oaklawn in her last start Dec. 17. She stalked the leaders and closed with authority to win the 1 1/16-mile race by two lengths. The start was her first since April.
“It was a huge race,” trainer Brad Cox said. “We were very proud of her. She tries as hard as any horse in the barn. I have to give her a lot of credit for her determination and grit. She always gives you whatever she has.”
Coach, a daughter of Commissioner owned by Kueber Racing, won the first three starts of her career in 2020, including the Rags to Riches at Churchill Downs. She went on to run second or third in three Kentucky Oaks points races and was ninth in the classic last April. For her recent Oakawn win, she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 79.
“I’m hopeful she’ll move forward off that race,” Cox said. “It’s back a little quick. This race showed up. I think it makes sense. Obviously, she’s the morning-line favorite. We’ve got to work out a good trip going the mile. I probably prefer a mile and a sixteenth with her at Oaklawn with the short stretch. Overall, it looks like the race will be pretty competitive.”
Cox has put a pair of half-mile works into Coach since her win in December, and the moves figure to have her sharp for the cutback in distance. She will break from the rail under Ricardo Santana Jr., who was aboard Coach for her win last out at Oaklawn.
Miss Bigly is back racing at a two-turn mile configuration after running third last out in the Grade 3 Chilukki at Churchill Downs. The one-turn mile race was Nov. 20. Miss Bigly won a two-turn mile stakes at Del Mar in August, in the Tranquility Lake. Martin Garcia has the mount for trainer Phil D’Amato.
Miss Bigly could show speed moving back to two turns, while others who figure to be prominent include Breeze Rider, W W Fitzy, and Itsallinthenotes.
Breeze Rider won the My Charmer on the synthetic track at Turfway in her last start Dec. 11. Before that race, she captured the Joseph R. Peluso Memorial on turf at Fair Grounds. E.T. Baird has been named to ride by trainer Steve Manley.