Anador, The Club make 2022 debuts for Clement

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It will be quality over quantity when racing resumes Thursday at Gulfstream Park with an eight-race program that includes four allowance events along with the second 2-year-old maiden race of the meet.

Trainer Christophe Clement was frustrated Saturday when his attempt to bring Group 3 winner King’s Harlequin back off a layoff was put on hold after overnight rains forced all turf races on the card to be switched to the Tapeta course. Clement will be looking for a little better break from the weather here Thursday when he hopes to send out 3-year-old filly grass specialists Anador and The Club for their 2022 debuts. Anador runs in the fifth race and The Club in the eighth. The fifth is at a mile, and the eighth at five furlongs.

Anador, a full sister to Group 3 winner Anodor, has been idle since finishing fifth, beaten two lengths by Vergara, in the 1 1/16-mile Tepin on Nov. 28 at Aqueduct. Anador came to the U.S. last fall after running four times in France. She posted a game head decision in a one-mile maiden special weight test at Belmont Park in her first U.S. start, which came four weeks before the Tepin.

Anador will face a field that includes stakes winner Chacalosa and last-out maiden winner Lady Puchi, who captured a super key race here Feb. 27 that has already produced four next-out winners.

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The Club captured 1 of 5 starts at 2 while also having finished fifth, just two lengths behind race winner Bubble Rock, in the Grade 3 Matron last fall at Belmont Park. Like Anador, The Club has prepared for her return at Payson Park and will race on Lasix for the first time in her 3-year-old bow.

The Club, who is at her best from off the pace, should benefit from all the speed signed on in the finale and is one of two horses Clement entered in the race along with key contender Kodama. Kodama came off an extended vacation of her own to prove a game maiden special weight winner going five furlongs on the turf here last month. Kodama figures forwardly placed from the outset along with Creative Girl, who exits a fourth-place finish in the Melody of Colors Stakes four weeks ago, Baby’s Dialed In, Poiema, David’s Rose, and Li Li Bear.

A speedy field of 3-year-old fillies also will match strides in the seventh race, to be decided at a mile on the main track. Trainer Todd Pletcher will send out the heavily favored Green Up off a one-sided maiden win coming back from a one-year hiatus on March 13. She received an 84 Beyer Speed Figure for the a 6 3/4-length triumph. Green Up, a daughter of Upstart, should be a pace factor on the stretch out in distance along with Fair Grounds invader Graceleadsushome and the newly blinkered Surreal Fantasy. Other top contenders include Easy Come Easy Go and multiple winners Peachy Weachy and Freccia d’ Argento.

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Vive Bien should be heavily backed to defeat five other Florida-breds in the third race, to be run at seven furlongs on dirt. Vive Bien is coming off an easy 3 1/4-length maiden win March 19 for which he earned an 86 Beyer, easily the best last-out figure in this lineup. Klugman and Tiger loom his chief rivals.

Girl Bye and Krazykatkousin, both from the barn of trainer Michael Yates, will take on the Arindel Farm pair of homebreds Olga and Jellybean when a field of eight juvenile fillies goes 4 1/2 furlongs in the second race. Girl Bye, a full sister to three winners, may be slightly best of the Yates pairing, while Jellybean is the better bred of the Arindel duo, being a full sister to stakes winner Gatsby and the multiple Florida Sire Stakes winner Octane.