Clement sends out pair with opposite running styles
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ELMONT, N.Y. − With one front-runner and one closer, trainer Miguel Clement will have two shots at winning Thursday’s first-level allowance/optional $55,000 claiming feature scheduled for 1 1/4 miles over Belmont Park’s inner turf course.
Scheduled could be the operative word here as rain is forecast Thursday, the timing of which could determine whether this race remains on turf or is run at 1 3/16 miles on Tapeta.
In this seven-horse field of females, Clement sends out Abigail and the potentially appropriately named Stand the Rain. Abigail will be reunited with Samuel Marin, who won twice on the daughter of Constitution last winter at Tampa. Those races were at 1 1/16 miles and a mile.
Abigail was a stalking second in both those starts and was a dueling second in a one-mile allowance at The Meadowlands on Sept. 19 where she finished second as the 4-5 favorite.
Thursday, Clement said the instructions to Marin will be simple.
“The one instruction is break and go to the lead,” Clement said. “She runs well when she’s forwardly-placed. I’d love to see her break and dictate. She has a very high cruising speed and I want to go straight to the lead. I feel very strongly about that. Catch me if you can.”
Conversely, Clement plans to have Manny Franco take Stand the Rain off the pace and come with one run. Stand the Rain is coming off a three-length maiden win going 1 5/16 miles over the Belmont turf, winning her first race in her 10th career start.
“She runs the same sort of race every single time,” Clement said. “My only instructions to Manny will be break, switch her off, get to the fence, come with one late run.”
Chad Brown also has two runners entered in this field, Alibi and Consensus View. Alibi won her maiden at Monmouth Park on Aug. 7 then finished eighth in this condition at Saratoga where she raced wide throughout. People Watching, who won that allowance, came back to win the Grade 3 Autumn Miss Stakes at Santa Anita.
Consensus View hasn’t done much running in three starts since winning her debut in June at Aqueduct.
Toes, trained by Neil Drysdale, could be interesting in this spot. Toes, a 4-year-old daughter of City of Light, finished eighth, beaten six lengths in her lone start of this year. The race came with all sorts of issues, including a stumble at the start that caused jockey John Velazquez to briefly lose his irons and then have a wide trip throughout.
Toes, who will be ridden by Antonio Fresu on Thursday, is a half-sister to stakes winners Miss Dracarys, who won the Forever Together on this circuit in 2022 and the Grade 2 Dance Smartly in Canada in 2023, and Up the Ante.
Bobby M’s Girl, a three-time winner, all in New York-bred company, and Tiz the Lady, fifth in her most recent start at Colonial Downs, complete the field.
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