Turfway Park: Coup looks for legit pace in Wintergreen
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Three-horse races are often “oddly run,” or that’s the official stance Graham Motion is taking in regard to a Dec. 8 optional claimer at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.
Coup, trained by Motion for owner-breeder George Strawbridge Jr., trailed throughout as the 1-2 favorite in that paceless race nearly four weeks ago, but the newly turned 5-year-old mare should have no such excuses when she returns Saturday to Turfway from her Fair Hill Training Center base in Maryland as one of the favorites in the $60,000 Wintergreen Stakes.
“At least there figures to be a legitimate pace this time,” Motion said. “She probably stands to benefit from that race, and hopefully, she’ll run much better this time.”
Coup, with Victor Lebron to ride, will break from post 2 in an oversubscribed field of 14 fillies and mares in the Wintergreen, which is run at one mile on Polytrack. The daughter of Empire Maker owns three wins in a stop-and-start career: a Gulfstream Park maiden race, the 2012 Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico, and a turf allowance in October at Keeneland.
Probably the top opponents for Coup are Moon Philly (post 7, Anthony Stephen) and Lady Diva Ga Ga (post 11, Ben Creed).
Moon Philly, purchased for $225,000 by Dixiana Farms at Fasig-Tipton in early November, is a three-time stakes winner and will be making her first start for Ben Colebrook, a Lexington, Ky., native and longtime former assistant to Christophe Clement.
“She’s been training very well, although she’s never raced over Poly, so that’s an obvious question she’ll have to answer,” Colebrook said. “We thought about taking her back to Laurel to run, but this is right up the road [from Keeneland] and we wanted to take a shot.”
Lady Diva Ga Ga, also based at Keeneland, is trained by Phil Sims, who enjoyed his best year in 2013 ($1.12 million in earnings) since he started his career in 1980. The gray mare was a sharp two-back winner of a Churchill Downs optional-claiming race.
Only 12 can start in the Wintergreen, with Lead Me On and Make a Toast the two also-eligibles.
The Wintergreen, named for the Ohio-bred who won the 1909 Kentucky Derby, goes as the eighth of nine Saturday races. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern, with the feature going at 4:33.
The Wintergreen is the first stakes at the winter-spring meet, which began Wednesday. Tuesday closed out the holiday meet.
Turfway will run stakes every other Saturday through March 1. The meet highlight, the $550,000 Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Spiral Stakes, is set for March 22.