Clement loaded up for first turf stakes of the Belmont meet

ELMONT, N.Y. – When Bubbles On Ice took Sunday’s $100,000 Memories of Silver Stakes at Aqueduct, it was the first stakes win of the year for trainer Christophe Clement.

He hopes he won’t have to wait quite as long for his second. Clement will have runners in both of the opening weekend turf stakes at the Belmont Park spring/summer meet with Therapist in Saturday’s $100,000 Elusive Quality at seven furlongs and She’s My Type in Sunday’s $100,000 License Fee going six furlongs.

Therapist, a New York-bred gelding by Freud, will be making his 6-year-old debut in the Elusive Quality, a race he won in 2019. Last year, Therapist also won the First Defence at Belmont, which was run instead of the Elusive Quality. Overall, Therapist is a three-time stakes winner going seven furlongs over the Belmont turf.

Therapist shows a somewhat light work tab at Payson Park but Clement says, “He’s dead ready.”

In the License Fee, She’s My Type, a 4-year-old French-bred daughter of Dunkerque, will be making her first start since she finished seventh in the Music City Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs last Sept. 15 at Kentucky Downs. Clement said the way She’s My Type was getting over the ground that day demonstrated to him that she didn’t care for the surface.

She’s My Type is a two-time stakes winner including a victory in the Coronation Cup at Saratoga last summer.

Meanwhile, Clement on Monday was still enjoying the victory from Bubbles On Ice, who rallied from the back of the pack before holding off a late run from Fluffy Socks to win by a head.

:: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now.

Bubbles On Ice was making her first start for Clement and first in this country. She is owned by the triumvirate of Everett Dobson’s Cheyenne Stables, Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stable, and Craig Bernick’s Glen Hill Farm.

“I had a major question mark at the distance,” Clement said. “She did get a great ride. You got to love that move from Javier Castellano to keep Irad Ortiz [on Fluffy Socks] inside when he moved on the turn. But she won well, she was game, genuinely tried hard.”

Clement said he will watch Bubbles On Ice train before deciding where to run her next. Options include the Grade 3, $100,000 Soaring Softly going seven furlongs at Belmont on May 15, the $100,000 Hilltop, run at a mile at Pimlico the same day, or the Grade 3, $200,000 Wonder Again (1 1/8 miles) at Belmont on June 3.

Clement has other fillies pointing to some of those races. Bye Bye and Hit the Woah are under consideration for the Soaring Softly. Plum Ali, last year’s Miss Grillo Stakes winner, is likely headed to the Wonder Again. She is coming off a third-place finish in the Appalachian at Keeneland on April 3.

“I thought she ran very well first time out,” Clement said of Plum Ali. “It was a paceless race. She comes from out of it.”