Clement saddles multiple contenders in West Point, Yaddo
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement will be a busy man Friday on New York Showcase Day at Saratoga, sending out horses in nine of the 11 races on the card, including defending champion City Man in the $200,000 West Point along with the highweight and likely favorite Classic Lady about an hour earlier in the $200,000 Yaddo Handicap.
Both turf stakes will be decided at 1 1/16 miles, the West Point over the Mellon course, the Yaddo on the inner strip.
The West Point drew a talented field of 10 New York-breds, with Bankit entered for the main track only by trainer Steve Asmussen. The lineup also includes Clement’s Therapist, along with the Mike Maker-trained duo of Grade 1-placed Somelikeithotbrown and Grade 2 winner Cross Border.
City Man and Therapist finished first and second, respectively, noses apart, in the 2021 West Point, the pair battling head to head through the final furlong with City Man proving gamest and narrowly best in the end.
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City Man will go postward the 124-pound topweight on Friday, in part due to his impressive, 2 3/4-length victory here last month against open company in the Grade 3 Forbidden Apple, earning a career-high 104 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.
“I’m not sure if his last race was his best yet, but it was pretty good,” Clement conceded. “He’s been training very well since, the extra distance is no problem, and I’m excited to see him run.”
Therapist looks to break a 10-race winless streak that dates back to his narrow victory in the Artie Schiller at Aqueduct during fall 2020. He has been idle since finishing third following a bit of an eventful trip in the 1 1/16-mile Kingston on May 30 at Belmont Park.
“He doesn’t like the heat, so I gave him a bit of a break this summer,” Clement explained. “He’s always competitive. He was finishing on the inside and ran all the way to the wire in this race last year, and I would be delighted if these two horses both gave us what they did in that race again here Friday.”
Somelikeithotbrown is winless in three tries thus far in 2022 and will race without blinkers for the first time when making his 27th career start in the West Point. The speedy Somelikeithotbrown is a perfect complement to stablemate Cross Border, a late-running sort who also looks for his first victory of the season and exits a strong showing when beaten just four lengths stretching out to 11 furlongs in defense of his title in the Grade 2 Bowling Green four weeks earlier.
Sanctuary City, a late-running third in the 2021 West Point, Kingston winner Ocala Dream, the speedy Jerry the Nipper, and longshots Lord Flintshire and Action Jackson complete the field.
Yaddo Stakes
The Clement trio of Classic Lady, Classic Colors, and Mischievous Dream is part of a dozen New York-bred fillies and mares entered for the Yaddo that also includes main-track-only entrant Wasp.
Classic Lady will carry high weight of 123 pounds, with just five pounds separating the evenly matched Yaddo lineup from top to bottom.
Classic Lady has finished third in each of the last two renewals of the Yaddo, beaten two lengths here a year ago by Giacosa while making just her second start following an extended layoff that day. She returns to statebred company off a sixth-place effort in the Grade 3 Dr. James Penny Memorial on July 12 at Parx Racing.
Classic Colors and Mischievous Dream both won second-level, statebred allowance races during the Belmont spring meet.
“At the end of the day, we’re taking a chance with all three fillies, there really aren’t that many New York-bred stakes to choose from,” Clement said. “Classic Lady is 7 years old and is a very good filly. For Classic Colors, it will be her first time competing at this level, while Mischievous Dream has been running well in allowance races and deserves another shot back at this level.”
Runaway Rumour, who was multiple graded stakes-placed last year and finished second, beaten a neck by Fluffy Socks, in the 2021 Sands Point, will try to recapture that form after having finished off the board in all four previous starts this season. She did finish nearly two lengths in front of Classic Colors when the pair last met in the Penny Memorial.
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Make Mischief may prove the one to catch stretching out around two turns for the first time this season in the Yaddo, although she is a giant question mark when making her turf debut Friday.
The improving Marvelous Maude, off a pair of allowance victories including one against open company here earlier in the meet for trainer Chad Brown, looms a major player, as does Ice Princess, who figures to be a pace factor from the outset after breaking from the rail.