Blacktype carries Clement's dominance into Tropical Turf

Christophe Clement has been the dominant figure in recent renewals of the Tropical Turf, and that trend might well continue Saturday at Gulfstream Park in south Florida when the Grade 3 race is run for the 39th time.

Clement will be represented by Blacktype, who surely will be favored in a field of nine older horses in the $100,000 Tropical Turf. A multiple graded winner of nearly $750,000, Blacktype will be looking to rebound off a fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Artie Schiller four weeks ago at Aqueduct.

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“He has done so well since the Artie Schiller, where I think he ran a winning race,” Miguel Clement, assistant trainer to his father, told Gulfstream publicity this week. “We hope he puts it all together this time. He’s training well and he looks great, so we’ll see. I’m excited to see him run.”

Dating to 2012, Christophe Clement has won four of the last five runnings of the Tropical Turf, which until this year had been run across town at Gulfstream Park West. Clement’s only miss during that span came in 2015, when he didn’t have a starter. His 2016 winner was Lubash, who was put up on the disqualification of Rose Brier. Lubash also was an outright winner of the 2014 running.

Blacktype, a 6-year-old French-bred gelding, will be ridden by Joel Rosario when he breaks from post 7 in the Tropical Turf, the last of five stakes on an 11-race Saturday card. First post is noon Eastern, with the Tropical Turf going at 4:37 as race 10. The female counterpart to the Tropical Turf, the My Charmer, goes about an hour earlier as race 8. Both races will be run around two turns at one mile, with the inner rail set out 24 feet on the Gulf turf course.

Blacktype has finished no worse than third in 20 of his 29 starts, with his best efforts resulting in victories in 2016 in the Grade 3 Oceanport at Monmouth and the Grade 2 Commonwealth Turf Cup at Laurel, and in 2017 in the Grade 2 Knickerbocker at Belmont Park. Half of his last 12 starts have resulted in triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures, with no Beyer lower than 95. This is his first race in Florida, but considering his consistency at all other tracks, “I don’t think there’s a reason why he wouldn’t run well,” Miguel Clement said.

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Probably the chief threats to Blacktype are Tower of Texas (post 1, Luis Saez) and Shakhimat (post 9, Edgard Zayas) – the respective winner and beaten favorite last month in the Labeeb over a yielding Woodbine turf – as well as Camelot Kitten (post 2, Irad Ortiz Jr.) for Chad Brown and All Included (post 4, Javier Castellano) for Todd Pletcher.

The Grade 3, $100,000 My Charmer will have On Leave (post 5, Ortiz), most recently third in the Grade 2 Goldikova at Del Mar, as the favorite in a field of nine fillies and mares. On Leave has compiled six wins and earnings of $742,300 from 13 starts, all for owner-breeder Stuart Janney and trainer Shug McGaughey.

Defiant Honor (post 9, John Velazquez) figures as second choice in the My Charmer, while Clement and Rosario will team together with one of the fringe players in Stormy Victoria (post 7), who stretches out from a series of turf sprints.

This is the 33rd running of the My Charmer, named for the dam of the legendary Seattle Slew.