Everything goes right for City Man in Forbidden Apple Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When City Man came off a four-month layoff to win the Danger’s Hour Stakes at Aqueduct in April with a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure, trainer Christophe Clement felt the 5-year-old New York-bred could be set for a big year.

Terrible ground hurt him in the Grade 2 Fort Marcy at Belmont Park and a terrible trip was his undoing in the Kingston Stakes, also at Belmont, when facing New York-breds in May.

Friday, at Saratoga, City Man got firm turf and a clean trip under Joel Rosario and he rallied six wide in the stretch to record a 2 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $175,000 Forbidden Apple Stakes.

Atone won a photo for second by a nose over Public Sector. Get Smokin nosed out 2-1 favorite Set Piece for fourth. Following Set Piece in the order of finish were Mira Mission, Wolfie’s Dynaghost, Sanctuary City, Scuttlebuzz, Clear Vision, and Yes and Yes, the early pacesetter

The win was the sixth from 22 starts for City Man and his fifth stakes victory. It was his first in a graded stakes and it came in a race named for a Grade 1-winning horse that Clement formerly trained.

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“It just tells you I’m getting old, I guess,” said the 56-year-old Clement.

In the Forbidden Apple, City Man settled into seventh position while saving ground for the opening five furlongs. Public Sector, one of the favorites in the race, went by City Man leaving the three-eighths pole and Rosario followed that horse. Rosario got City Man out in the clear in the stretch, and when he asked him to run there was no traffic in front of him, he lengthened his stride and ran away from his 10 competitors in the stretch.

City Man, a son of Mucho Macho Man owned by Dean Reeves, covered the mile in 1:33.76 and returned $26.60.

“I was hoping we wouldn’t get stopped, but turning for home when we started moving I got lucky, I got out and every time I asked for a little something he was moving forward,” Rosario said.

City Man will have options here later in the meet, but the most logical one might be the $200,000 West Point Handicap - a race he won by a nose here last year - on Aug. 26.