Clement stays hot as Bottas takes Gun Runner
:quality(75))
New York-based trainer Miguel Clement owns the 3-year-old division this season at Kentucky Downs. He sent Caroline St. Beat to win the $1.83 million Nashville Derby on Saturday, and on Monday the Clement-trained Bottas landed the $1.75 million Gun Runner Stakes.
Caroline St. Beat earned a little over $1 million, Bottas a little under $1 million, and Clement earned an A-plus for both training and race planning.
Bottas got a masterful ground-saving trip under Jose Ortiz and proved much the best, whizzing past pacesetting Conducted in the final half-furlong to win by 1 1/4 lengths going away.
Conducted ran well in defeat, his cause aided by a modest pace, as was the case with Fuzzbuster, two lengths behind Fuzzbuster in third after tracking the lead. Touch of Fire, the 3-1 second choice, checked in fourth after a trip that was less than ideal, but also a performance that was less than prime.
Bottas had beaten a tough-trip Touch of Fire by 1 1/2 lengths Aug. 7 at Saratoga in the Hall of Fame and was much better than him Monday as the favorite at just less than 5-2. Ortiz, riding Bottas for the first time, allowed his mount to settle near the back of the field in the early stages of the one-mile Gun Runner, easing closer to contention around the sweeping swath of far turn while never leaving the fence. Ortiz asked for something more serious a quarter mile out and got an instant response, Bottas finally coming outside to split rivals at the three-sixteenths pole, then again at the furlong grounds, before cruising past the lone horse still ahead of him.
“When I had the opening, I asked him to go, and he responded very well,” Ortiz said. “The kick and acceleration he gave me was amazing.”
Conducted did himself no favors while switching leads repeatedly through the homestretch as Luis Saez tried to urge him forward. Fuzzbuster’s third-place finish came mainly on the trip, and no one other than the winner was running on late from the rear.
Bottas paid $17.20 for a $5 wager, the base win bet at Kentucky Downs, and clocked 1:34.55 over a firm course.
Clement trains Bottas for Abdulhadi Mana Al Hajri’s Dahman, and Bottas, a son of Vekoma and the Lemon Drop Kid mare Iadora Kid, now is a three-time stakes winner. And his trainer, over the course of 48 hours, won two seven-figure Kentucky Downs 3-year-old stakes.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.
