Clement well suited regardless of surface in Friday feature

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement seems to have a top contender regardless of whether Friday’s featured $62,500 second-level allowance/optional-claiming feature scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf stays on grass or if potential wet weather forces it to the dirt.

On turf, Clement has the uncoupled pair of Breath Away and Malleymoo. On dirt, where the race would be cut back to a one-turn mile, he would send out the streaking Ocean Gateway.

Breath Away, an English-bred daughter of Bated Breath, won the Sanibel Island Stakes at Gulfstream in April 2023. She went winless in four starts since, ending her 3-year-old season with a head defeat to Be My Sunshine in the Tropical Park Oaks on Dec. 23 at Gulfstream.

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In that race, Breath Away had a wide trip from post 10, while the winner, who broke from post 2, snuck through an opening along the inside to get the victory.

Clement said he gave the filly time off by design.

“She’s training well, she looks good,” Clement said.

Clement is the fourth trainer Malleymoo has had in what will be her ninth career start. She began her career in Ireland for Joseph O’Brien, winning her debut in December 2022. Sent to Jack Sisterson, Malleyoo went 1 for 5, winning the Penn Mile last June. Malleymoo went through a Fasig-Tipton horses of racing Age sale in July, where she was purchased for $500,000 by LSU Stable and turned over to Todd Pletcher.

Malleymoo went winless in two starts for Pletcher and now makes her first start for Clement in this spot.

Clement said he has a “small question mark” on how either of his fillies would handle soft ground.

If the race is run on dirt, Ocean Gateway would be the one to beat. She has won three straight starts going a one-turn mile, all at Aqueduct, including a two-length victory in a first-level/optional-claiming race on March 28.

Clement said Ocean Gateway “does better in cooler weather.”

If on turf, Be Your Best is a contender, as she runs in an allowance race after making 11 consecutive starts in stakes. In 2022, as a 2-year-old, Be Your Best won the P.G. Johnson Stakes. Since then, she has finished second three times in stakes, including a runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks.

Be Your Best has not run since a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Buena Vista on March 3 at Santa Anita.

Quarrel is entered to make her 4-year-old debut in this spot, though she was re-entered Wednesday for Saturday’s rescheduled Grade 3, $175,000 Beaugay Stakes, which was coming up a short field.

Swoop to Finish, Taming the Tigress, Towhead, and Elysian Field complete the field on turf. Amanda’s Folly is entered for the main track only.

◗ Friday’s card begins with the first 2-year-old race of the year in New York. The five-furlong race for New York-breds drew five colts and the filly Phoebeinwonderland. Out On Bail, trained by Mike Maker, is a son of Tiz the Law, the 2020 Belmont Stakes and Travers winner. Vamanos Vamanos, trained by Rudy Rodriguez, does have two siblings who won early in their careers.

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