Clement sends out solid pair

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Christophe Clement reaches into his deep roster of grass runners for Grassy and Golden Mexico, a pair of promising 3-year-olds, in the $65,000 Monarch's Maze Stakes at Aqueduct.

The 1 1/16-mile race attracted a field of eight, with Retriever and Precursor also entered for the main track only.

The Clement duo will race uncoupled, with Grassy likely to attract the greater support. The gray colt is 2-0-1 from 4 starts on grass, all this season.

After spotting the field 11 lengths over soft ground at Saratoga, the well-named Grassy rallied to snare a first-level allowance by a nose.

From there, Grassy stepped up to the Grade 1 Jamaica Handicap, acquitting himself well by running fourth, only 1 1/2 lengths behind winner Take the Points.

The Irish-bred Golden Mexico hit the board in his last three outings, getting third last time out as the 3-2 favorite in a second-level allowance at the Meadowlands.

Among other promising 3-year-olds in the field, Waltzing With Blue will ship up from the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland for the husband-and-wife training team of Arnaud and Leigh Delacour.

A gelding owned by Peachtree Stable, Waltzing With Blue shipped north to the Delacours after rallying for third in the American Dreamer Stakes at Calder on July 11.

He has run once for the new barn, taking a first-level allowance race Delaware Park on Sept. 15.

"Unfortunately we only had a chance to run him one time," Arnaud Delacour said. "With all the rain, it's been a terrible fall for turf racing."

Waltzing With Blue was rained out of the Princeton Stakes on Oct. 16 at the Meadowlands when the race came off the turf.

"That was a very good spot, and the horse has been doing well since then," Delacour said. "I am very impatient to run him. The mile and a sixteenth might be a little short for him, but we don't have a lot of spots at this time of year, so we have to go for it."

Bittel Road hits the comeback trail for trainer Todd Pletcher. This will be his first appearance since a sixth-place finish in the Grade 3 American Turf Stakes on the Kentucky Oaks undercard in May.

Bittel Road started his career last season with three straight grass wins, including the Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland. He chased the pace before fading to eighth in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.