Chez Pierre the ace in Poker field
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On April 18 at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile, Chez Pierre made fondue out of Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Modern Games and toasted On the Mark, who returned with an emphatic Grade 1 victory of his own in the Old Forester Turf Classic. Tres magnifique! Anything comparable to that performance and Chez Pierre’s six rivals Saturday at Belmont Park in the Poker Stakes might as well fold their hands.
Eight are entered in the Poker, a one-turn turf mile, but Bourbon Calling runs only if the race is rained onto dirt.
The Grade 3, $200,000 Poker marks a considerable step down in class from the Grade 1, $600,000 Maker’s Mark. Chez Pierre had been considered for a trip to Santa Anita for the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on May 29, but Maryland-to-California travel complications led connections to scrap that plan, trainer Arnaud Delacour said. The decision to target the Poker rather than the Shoemaker accounts for a gap in Chez Pierre’s published works between May 6 and May 20.
“I didn’t want to over-breeze him,” said Delacour, a French import like Chez Pierre.
Chez Pierre, a 5-year-old by Mehmas, is a very, very good sprinter-miler. Purchased at a French 2-year-old auction by Lael Stables, Chez Pierre won three times in France before being imported to America. He made it four wins from four starts in a Tampa Bay allowance race before an eye-catching score in April 2022, winning the Henry Clark at Laurel by five lengths with a 100 Beyer Speed Figure.
Chez Pierre worked three times afterward but pulled a muscle in his hind end, Delacour said, and required a lengthy recovery. He returned Feb. 4 in the Tampa Bay Stakes, raced too keenly in the early and middle stages while caught three wide without cover, and came up empty to finish sixth, his first defeat.
“Off the layoff, he was a little fresh. It was not the kind of race we were expecting,” Delacour said.
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Rather than retreat, Delacour attacked, thinking that if Chez Pierre merely needed his first race back and could recapture his 2022 form, he could contend at the Grade 1 level. Could he ever.
Making the lead while being ridden for the first time by Flavien Prat in the Maker’s Mark, Chez Pierre was displaced on the engine when Dr Zempf middle-moved before the far turn. Perfect. Prat told Delacour that Chez Pierre had been looking around, unfocused, until a target was presented. Turning for home, Chez Pierre cruised past Dr Zempf and in the final furlong Prat looked over his shoulder to find Modern Games several lengths behind.
Drawn in post 1 Saturday, Prat and Chez Pierre should slot in behind Filo Di Arianna, who figures to go to the lead from post 7. Delacour mentioned races like the Fourstardave, the Keeneland Turf Mile, and the Breeders’ Cup Mile as 2023 goals. If Chez Pierre is to stick to that kind of agenda, he ought to win the Poker as an odds-on favorite.
Emmanuel won the 2022 Pennine Ridge in his lone previous Belmont turf start and won the Tampa Bay over Chez Pierre, but his form since has slipped. Emaraaty, Mackinnon, Dreams of Tomorrow, and Anaconda all are listed stakes to Grade 3 types. Filo di Arianna looks like the main threat.
Seven-year-old, Brazilian-bred Filo Di Arianna has made only 10 starts, winning seven. He won a pair of Grade 2s in Canada, the Connaught Cup and the King Edward, going seven furlongs and a mile around one turn at Woodbine last summer before an ankle injury sidelined him, trainer Mark Casse said. Filo Di Arianna’s comeback race April 29 ended in a second-place finish as the odds-on favorite in a Woodbine allowance race. But at 5 1/2 furlongs the race was too short for him, and the front-running winner subsequently returned to capture a stakes.
Filo Di Arianna is likely to make the front end and could control the tempo. Can the Brazilian import hold off the horse from France? Non.
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