Clement looks to continue strong start with Zelda

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sometimes it takes Christophe Clement a while to get rolling in the first couple of months of any given year. But apparently not this year.

Clement has won with five of his first 15 starters at a Gulfstream Park Championship meet that began Dec. 26. He had two winners last weekend, including an eye-catching first-time starter named Far Bridge. The 57-year-old Frenchman wouldn’t mind sustaining that momentum when he sends out Zelda as one of the top contenders in the Thursday feature at Gulfstream.

Zelda, a French-bred 4-year-old, is part of an oversubscribed field of fillies and mares in the seventh of nine races, a $73,000 second-level allowance scheduled for a mile on turf. Frankie Dettori, the popular European star competing regularly in California this winter in his final year of riding, will be aboard Zelda from post 12.

Zelda didn’t show much in her only stateside outing after seven starts in France, but she was an 8-5 favorite in that Nov. 4 turf sprint at Aqueduct, perhaps a clue to her potential. One of her races last spring resulted in a respectable sixth-place finish in the Group 1 French 1000 Guineas at Longchamp.

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Zelda will be treated with the bleeder medication Lasix for the second time Thursday. If she doesn’t show sufficient improvement off her last race, this one could fall any number of ways, with maybe the Bill Mott returnee White Frost (post 9, Junior Alvarado) being her top threat. White Frost, now 5, won the Sweetest Chant on the 2021 Pegasus undercard at Gulfstream but has had just one start in the two-year interim.

Clement, whose 2,331 wins since he began training in the United States in 1991 includes 262 in graded stakes, unveiled a potential star here Saturday when Far Bridge, a 3-year-old Calumet Farm homebred colt by English Channel, debuted with an 88 Beyer Speed Figure in capturing a two-turn maiden-special race on the turf.

Dettori is here this week primarily to ride the big Pegasus Day card on Saturday. He is named on mounts Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, but he’ll be idle Friday when serving a one-day suspension for a HISA-related whip violation. He returns to action Sunday at Santa Anita.

A second allowance for Florida-breds directly follows as race 8 on Thursday. It’s a $54,000 first-level race at five furlongs on Tapeta, with Hoax (post 3, Irad Ortiz Jr.) being a lukewarm morning-line favorite in a well-matched field of seven 3-year-old fillies.

First post is 12:10 p.m. Eastern. The allowances are part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 4-9), which began the five-day race week Wednesday with a jackpot carryover of $486,470 and a pool guarantee of $600,000.

Gulfstream officials have scheduled a forceout of the Rainbow 6 pool for Sunday.

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