Multiple Stakes Winner Ends 232-Day Layoff in Saturday Stakes

BALTIMORE – Kueber Racing’s Coach, a multiple Midwest stakes winner that is twice graded-stakes placed, will head east for her first start in 232 days and give two-time defending Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox the chance for a second straight win in the $100,000 Twixt Saturday at Laurel Park.

The 40th running of the Twixt for fillies and mares 3 and up going about 1 1/16 miles is the fourth of five stakes worth $575,000 in purses on a 10-race program marking opening weekend of the calendar year-ending fall meet.

Serving as co-headliners are the $150,000 Laurel Futurity and $150,000 Selima for 2-year-olds on the grass, joined by the $100,000 Japan Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up at 1 ½ miles and $75,000 Challedon for 3-year-olds and up sprinting seven furlongs which have never won an open sweepstakes.

First race post time is 12:40 p.m.

Coach has not raced since finishing fourth after dueling for the lead in the 1 1/16-mile Bayakoa (G3) Feb. 12 at Oaklawn Park, snapping a two-race win streak that included the one-mile Pippin Jan. 8 over a pair of next-out winners. The 4-year-old daughter of multiple graded-stakes winner Commissioner remained in training into early April before going to the sidelines, returning to the work tab in late August at Churchill Downs.

As a juvenile in 2020, Coach won the 1 1/16-mile Rags to Riches at Churchill then placed three times in four subsequent stakes including the Golden Rod (G2) at 2 and Fantasy (G3) at 3, the latter earning her a shot in the Kentucky Oaks (G1), where she ran 10th.

Coach didn’t race again until 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance Dec. 17 at Oaklawn – following an identical 232-day break between starts – beating July 8 Iowa Distaff winner and Twixt rival Jilted Bride by two lengths.

“She’s been training well off the layoff at Churchill,” Cox said. “Last year we gave her a break after running in the Oaks and she ran well from that. She hasn’t run this year since Oaklawn in the middle of February, but has shown in the past she runs well after a freshening. The way she’s been preparing, we’re expecting her to do that again this year.”

Cox won the 2021 Twixt with Dreamalildreamofu who, like Coach, came into the race as a stakes winner having placed twice in graded-stakes. Feargal Lynch is named to ride from Post 5 in a field of eight.

Bradley Thoroughbreds, Cambron Equine, Zane Carruth and Brady Carruth’s 5-year-old mare Jilted Bride has been a model of consistency since being purchased at 2 for $150,000. She has gone on to finish third or better in 20 of 21 career starts and earn $509,922 in purses, becoming a stakes winner in the 1 1/16-mile Iowa Distaff. Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, she has placed in five other stakes including thirds in the Bayakoa – 1 ½ lengths ahead of Coach – and 2021 Turnback the Alarm (G3).

Hybrid Eclipse will be making her fourth start off the layoff for trainer Brittany Russell, having run third in the 1 1/16-mile Obeah June 8 at Delaware Park and winning Laurel’s one-mile Caesar’s Wish July 2. Purchased for $107,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s July horses of racing age sale by Stuart Grant’s The Elkstone Group, she was fourth in the 1 1/16-mile Timonium Distaff contested around three turns Aug. 27 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds.

“She looked like she was in good form and we just thought she had a lot of races left in her,” Grant said of the decision to buy Hybrid Eclipse. “We kept her with Brittany and we’re still very hopeful. We tried her on the bullring course and that’s tough. You’ve got to really like that one and she didn’t. She’s been training really well and Brittany’s been happy with her so I’m hoping for good things with her in the fall.”

Russell also attributed the atypical poor performance to Timonium’s unique track, where Breviary beat multiple stakes winner Malibu Beauty by a half-length. Both horses also return in the Twixt.

“That’s what we’re chalking that effort, or lack of effort, up to. We’re just drawing a line through that one. She’s doing as good as she can be and she likes it here at Laurel, so I’m hoping that we can just get her back on track,” Russell said. “She ran really big that day she won the stake. It’s going to be a little bit of a tougher spot this time around, but she likes it here and it’s home for her so I’m hoping that’s an advantage for us.”

Hybrid Eclipse has three wins and a second from four starts at Laurel, the other three coming for previous trainer Linda Rice. She won a pair of optional claiming allowances a year apart and in between was beaten a nose in a similar spot last October.

“Really when I got her in, we were just trying to win a three-other-than and see what we could do with her and when we ran her at Delaware, I couldn’t get her in anywhere,” Russell said. “I was like, ‘Just run her.’ She needed to run and she actually ran really well, and it kind of set her up perfect for the race at Laurel. She seems to be doing well since.

“Stuart had shown some interest in her and I liked the filly. I was happy to have her back in the barn, so it worked out really well for both ends,” she added. “Hopefully we can get her to win another stake for him.”

Medallion Racing, Charles Deters, Parkland Thoroughbreds and Mike Olszewski’s The Grass Is Blue was second in the Caesar’s Wish, beaten 2 ¾ lengths. Third in the 2020 Anne Arundel County at Laurel and winner of the 2021 Busanda at Aqueduct for previous connections, the 4-year-old Broken Vow filly exits a sixth in the seven-furlong Seeking the Pearl Aug. 16 at Colonial Downs.

The Twixt will be The Grass Is Blue’s fourth start for trainer Graham Motion, who has sprinted her twice including an off-the-turf optional claiming allowance going 5 ½ furlongs May 14 at historic Pimlico Race Course in her season debut.

“The Grass Is Blue is doing great. I think the race is probably tough enough, but I’m anxious to stretch her out and see how she handles it,” Motion said. “She’s coming out of a really competitive race down at Colonial where she didn’t have the best trip. I’m not exactly sure what her best distance is, but she did run very well in the stake at Laurel going a mile. She’s quite difficult in the morning, this filly, which makes me question how far she wants to go and that’s why I’ve tended to keep her in sprint races.”

Battle Bling, winner of the Jan. 16 Ladies at Aqueduct that has run second in four subsequent stakes this year including the 1 ¼-mile Delaware Handicap (G2) July 9; and multiple stakes-placed Click to Confirm complete the field.

Twixt was a Maryland-bred champion every year she raced, from 1972-75, retiring as Maryland’s all-time money-winning mare. Her 18 stakes wins were also a Maryland-bred record on the flat. Bred and owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Merryman and trained by their daughter, Katy Voss, Twixt won the Barbara Fritchie (G3) and was named Maryland’s Horse of the Year in 1973 and 1974.