Clement eyes double in co-featured Sky Beauty, Real Courage stakes
Christophe Clement will figure prominently in the co-featured $100,000 stakes Sunday at Belmont Park, as he sends out the multiple stakes winner Montana Native in the Sky Beauty and the $1.1 million-earner Za Approval in the Real Courage.
The Sky Beauty and the Real Courage are carded as the third and fourth races on a 10-race card.
Montana Native is the most accomplished of five fillies and mares in the one-mile Sky Beauty, having won stakes at three tracks, including the $200,000 Remington Park Oaks as a 3-year-old last September. She drops in class after runner-up finishes in the Obeah and Molly Pitcher and totes 124 pounds under the allowance conditions, giving anywhere from 2 to 6 pounds to Katie’s Garden, Sister Friend, Tahoe Tigress, and Toasting.
With just five starts, Katie’s Garden easily is the least experienced of the quintet but looks like an up-and-comer after winning three in a row, capped by a convincing score over second-level allowance foes first time back from a layoff at Saratoga.
Katie’s Garden is a homebred filly out of Tarlow, who concluded her career winning the Santa Margarita and La Canada for the same connections.
“I trained [Tarlow], so I had a lot of experience with the family,” trainer John Shirreffs said.
Toasting, who ran last in the Saratoga Dew at odds on, looks to rebound back at Belmont, where she has won five times from seven starts.
Sky Beauty (Race 3)
Key contenders
Montana Native (Last 3 Beyers: 88-91-86)
* Her initial stakes win came at Saratoga in 2013 with Joel Rosario, who is back aboard for the first time since then.
* She matched her lifetime top Beyer Speed Figure (91) two starts back in the Obeah.
Katie’s Garden (Last 3 Beyers: 89-83-74)
* Her connections, record mogul Jerry Moss and trainer John Shirreffs, also campaigned Zenyatta.
* She is the only entrant who has not been past seven furlongs.
Real Courage Stakes (race 4)
The Real Courage is scheduled for seven furlongs on the Widener turf course, and Clement will be hoping thunderstorms forecast for Saturday don’t materialize into anything significant because his three-time graded stakes winner Za Approval likes to hear his feet rattle.
“He loves it firm,” Clement said.
Za Approval, who has struggled to find his best form at age 6, makes his first start since being bumped and forced out by eventual winner Up With the Birds in the $220,000 Nijinsky Stakes on July 19.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 4 Za Approval. Trainer Christophe Clement is 9 for 27 with a $2.53 ROI over the past two years shortening from routes to sprints on turf. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Fredericksburg, who has been the early pacesetter in three graded stakes routes this year, shortens in distance for trainer Michael Matz after setting the pace in the Oceanport.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Fredericksburg. Trainer Michael Matz is 1 for 10 with a $1.00 ROI over the past two years shortening from routes to sprints on turf. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
The only two-time winner at seven furlongs on grass is Strong Impact, who was claimed out of a win for $80,000 in his 8-year-old debut and promptly won the John McSorley Stakes at Monmouth Park for David Jacobson.
“He had a lot of class, which was why I claimed him,” said Jacobson, who also entered Cherokee Artist for the main track only.
Key contenders
Za Approval (Last 3 Beyers: 78-94-87)
* Ran five consecutive triple-digit Beyers on four different turf courses from June 2013 through this year’s Grade 1 Kilroe Mile on March 8.
* The 78 Beyer he received last out was his worst since a 59 on a yielding Widener course back in October 2012.
Fredericksburg (Last 3 Beyers: 95-91-86)
* With the exception of a seventh-place finish in the Dixie on “good” turf, all of his grass races have been on ground labeled firm.
* He has not previously run at a distance shorter than one mile on turf or dirt.