Chelsey Flower sensible spot for Miss Chatelaine
ELMONT, N.Y. – Patience certainly served trainer Christophe Clement well as it pertained to Tonalist, a multiple Grade 1 winner who is one of the main contenders for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Clement hopes that patience pays off down the road with Miss Chatelaine, who makes the second start of her career in Sunday’s $100,000 Chelsey Flower Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Belmont Park. Fourteen horses – three for the main track only – were entered for the Chelsey Flower, scheduled for a mile on the Widener turf.
Miss Chatelaine won her debut in a most professional manner Sept. 7, a performance that might have had her on the fast track to a graded stakes or possibly the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf next weekend.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 6 Miss Chatelaine. Trainer Christophe Clement is 10-4-2-0 with a $2.21 ROI over the past five years with 2-year-olds making their second career start in routes following a winning debut. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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But Miss Chatelaine is a daughter of Pulpit, and, like her sire, can be a bit high-strung. So, Clement has taken his time with the filly.
“Some of the Pulpits are hot mentally,” said Christophe Lorieul, Clement’s longtime assistant. “He wanted to space her races out to make sure we got it right. She’s probably our best 2-year-old filly.”
Another outfit taking the conservative approach is Zayat Stable and trainer Michael Wilson with their filly Margaret Reay. She is still a maiden, but she finished second to likely Juvenile Fillies Turf favorite Lady Eli in the Grade 3 Pilgrim at Belmont last month.
Wilson said Margaret Reay has taken “a big step forward off that last race,” adding, “she’s never been doing better than she’s doing now.”
Wilson doesn’t seem worried by how Margaret Reay would handle a soft turf course, either, noting that she breezed over “semi-yielding ground in Saratoga, and she seemed to handle it okay.”
Path, a daughter of Tapit trained by Shug McGaughey, rallied from well back off a slow pace to win her maiden by a neck here Sept. 19.
“He had to make a premature move just to keep her from being too wide,” McGaughey said, referring to jockey Javier Castellano. “It was a good effort. I think she’s a nice filly.”
Trainer Chad Brown sends out Ack Naughty, who won her debut by three lengths here Sept. 18.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 5 Quick Reward. Trainer Rodrigo Ubillo is 20-2-3-1 with a $4.59 ROI over the past five years with horses going from sprint to route and dirt to turf. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan