Trainer Tom Morley admitted that he was doing a bit of a rain dance Thursday, and his prayers were answered when Friday's Coronation Cup was washed onto the Saratoga main track. Scratched down to a field of just four sophomore fillies, Unified Alliance (Unified) took full advantage while making her first start for Morley and the in-form Javier Castellano.
Nicely into stride from gate three, the dark bay filly had early company to her inside in the form of Anna's Arabesque (Munnings), as odds-on L Street Lady (Munnings)–the lone main-track-only entrant–chased that pair from third. Unified Alliance cut the corner into the stretch and kept finding up front en route to an ultimately comfortable first black-type success.
Unified Alliance made the first six starts of her career for John Servis, winning her maiden at first asking at Parx last December before adding a romping 10 1/4-length allowance score in Bensalem Apr. 3. A distant last of four in the rained-off Memories of Silver S. at Aqueduct Apr. 29, she led into the final furlong of the June 11 Jersey Girl S. at Belmont, but was outfinished by L Street Lady and settled for second.
“We were sitting at the table with claps of thunder and bolts of lightning [last night], and I said, 'I could really do with this going on for four more hours just to really knock it on the head,'” the winning trainer said. “It didn't last four hours, but we got enough [rain]. She actually worked really, really well on the grass at Belmont, so we were definitely going to roll the dice and see if she could [run on] turf today, but obviously it cut up into an easier race when it came off.”
The fourth stakes winner for her Lane's End-based sire (by Candy Ride {Arg}), Unified Alliance is the only of her dam's foals to race and hails from the female family of GISW A. P. Adventure (A.P. Indy). Star Power did not produce a foal in any of the last three years and was bred to McKinzie this season. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
CORONATION CUP S., $139,500, Saratoga, 7-14, 3yo, f, 5 1/2f (off turf), 1:03.80, ft.
1–UNIFIED ALLIANCE, 120, f, 3, by Unified
1st Dam: Star Power, by Speightstown
2nd Dam: Sequel, by A.P. Indy
3rd Dam: Nataliano, by Fappiano
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. ($170,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP; $60,000 2yo '22 EASMAY). O-Reagan Jack Racing; B-Calvin & Shane Crain (KY); T-Thomas Morley; J-Javier Castellano. $82,500. Lifetime Record: 7-3-2-1, $193,500.
2–Anna's Arabesque, 118, f, 3, Munnings–Classy Music, by Maclean's Music. ($220,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Rigney Racing, LLC; B-Patrick Waresk (KY); T-Philip A Bauer. $30,000.
3–L Street Lady, 122, f, 3, Munnings–Lady Gayle, by Scat Daddy. ($125,000 Ylg '21 FTKJUL). O-Madaket Stables LLC; B-T & G Farm of Kentucky LLC (KY); T-Brittany T Russell. $18,000.
Margins: 1HF, 6 3/4, 5 3/4. Odds: 2.75, 2.25, 0.95.
Also Ran: Wildhawk. Scratched: Bosserati, Love Appeals, Love Reigns (Ire), My Sweet Affair, Violet Gibson (Ire).
UNIFIED ALLIANCE wins the Coronation Cup Stakes with @jjcjockey aboard for trainer @morley_racing! Congratulations to the connections! #Saratoga pic.twitter.com/8DuWYHeBZs
— NYRA (🎪) (@TheNYRA) July 14, 2023
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
