Twirling Queen knocks off first step of ambitious plan in Coronation Cup
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Jose D’Angelo has an ambitious schedule mapped out for Twirling Queen for the second half of the year. Friday, at sunny Saratoga, Twirling Queen got that campaign started on a winning note by recording a three-quarter-length victory in the $150,000 Coronation Cup for 3-year-old fillies at 5 1/2 furlongs.
Sitting a stalking third under Luis Saez, Twirling Queen made a three-wide bid at the top of the lane, ran with Toupie until inside the sixteenth pole and edged away for the victory, her fourth consecutive since joining the D’Angelo barn.
Kairyu, under Jose Ortiz, rallied to finish second by three-quarters of a length over Cloudwalker. Toupie finished fourth and was followed in the order of finish by Dancing Duchess, In Our Time, and Ever So Sweet, the latter who set the pace early on under Irad Ortiz Jr. Star of Mystery, the morning-line favorite, scratched in favor of running in Sunday’s Grade 3 Quick Call Stakes against males. Pipsy and Baraye also scratched from the Coronation Cup.
Saez said Twirling Queen was bobbling a little bit over the turf early on in the race but “when we came to the top of the stretch and she switched her leads, she gave me a pretty good run,” Saez said.
Twirling Queen, a daughter of Twirling Candy owned by GU Racing Stable, covered the distance in 1:01.93 and returned $9.40 as the third choice.
Twirling Queen has plenty of early speed, but she’s learned to harness it. That was important Friday as D’Angelo didn’t want Twirling Queen to get into a speed duel with Ever So Sweet.
“I told Luis have a good start, [but] if you break better than Irad, probably we get in trouble and we go fighting and I wouldn’t like that,” D’Angelo said. “I said have a good start sit and make [your move]. That’s what we did it and it worked.”
In the Coronation Cup, Twirling Queen was making her first start since she won the Mamzelle at Churchill Downs on May 11. That was preceded by victories in the Melody of Colors in March and an allowance race in February, both over Gulfstream Park’s Tapeta surface.
The nine-week layoff to this race was due in part to the fact that Twirling Queen is on the smaller side physically. Also, D’Angelo has three more races in which he would like to run Twirling Queen – the $150,000 Galway Stakes here on Aug. 10; the $2 million Music City Stakes at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 7, and then the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 2.
“That’s the plan,” D’Angelo said.
Step one was executed perfectly.
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