Clement caps big weekend with longshot Lonely Road in Matron

ELMONT, N.Y. – With a barn heavily tilted to toward turf horses, trainer Christophe Clement was hoping he had a dirt horse in Lonely Road, a second-out maiden winner on dirt here in June.

But after a poor performance in the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes in Saratoga, Clement heeded owner Robert Evans’s suggestion that Lonely Road may actually prefer the grass.

That assertion was quite evident Monday at Belmont Park when Lonely Road was sent through an opening along the rail by jockey David Cohen and she held off a late-running Monette to win the Grade 3, $150,000 Matron Stakes for 2-year-old fillies by a head. It was a half-length back to Entirely, the 3-2 favorite, in third.

This was the first running of the Matron on turf after its first 109 editions were run on dirt.

For Clement, the win capped a huge day and fantastic weekend. Clement won three races on Monday’s card – including the Grade 2 Knickerbocker with Blacktype – and four stakes over the weekend. On Saturday, he won the Grade 2 Hill Prince with Have At It and the $150,000 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational with Disco Partner.

Lonely Road was the beneficiary of a terrific ride by David Cohen, who was riding her for the first time. Cohen had Lonely Road in fourth, about 2 1/2 lengths off the pace set by Egoli and Guacamole, who went a quarter in 21.91 seconds and a half-mile in 45.57.

When Egoli, under Irad Ortiz Jr., drifted off the rail turning for home, Cohen immediately shot Lonely Road on through. That turned out to be the winning move as she held off Monette, who drifted out several paths soon after the start breaking from post 12.

“The horse on the lead kind of edged off the rail approaching the quarter pole, so I took the opportunity when I had it as opposed to the top of the lane when they probably come back down,” Cohen said. “She switched leads, went into there, and that little burst into the hole really had her dig in and really find some more.”

Lonely Road, a daughter of Quality Road out of the turf stakes-placed mare Lonesome Town, covered the six furlongs in 1:10.88 over good ground. She returned $39.40.

“The move on the rail made us win the race,” Clement said.

Monette, a French-bred filly making her U.S. debut for trainer Graham Motion after racing six times in France, cost herself position when she took a right-hand turn breaking from the extreme outside post. She regrouped under Jose Ortiz and came with a run, but fell just short.

“She kept going out and going out to the point where I thought I was never going to get back,” Ortiz said. “As soon as I got her back with the group, she started going straight. What a shame we had the 12. If we would have had the 11 and had a horse outside of us, she would have been much better.”