Les Reys, Clement, Prat give Valley View a French flavor
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Les Reys, trainer Christophe Clement, and jockey Flavien Prat, all imported from France, can win the biggest race in Kentucky on Friday.
Les Reys leads an overflow field of 3-year-old fillies entered in the Grade 2, $350,000 Valley View Stakes. She’s not just the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a one-mile grass race that drew 15 entrants and can accommodate a dozen: Les Reys rates by a decent margin as the most likely winner.
A petite gray filly by the relatively obscure sire Penny’s Picnic, Les Reys won just one of her first five starts, all modest performances, before hitting a decidedly higher level late this spring. In a 6 1/2-furlong handicap in May, Les Reys broke from the outside post in a 15-horse field, a very bad draw at Longchamp Racecourse, and, after dropping back to last, came with a powerful sustained outside run to win by 2 1/2 lengths at 26-1. A month later, up in class and out to one mile, Les Reys stepped up her game in the listed Prix Volterra, this time mowing down nine rivals with a strong outside run.
Those two runs and Les Reys’s humble origins caught the eye of French trainer Nicolas Clement, who passed along what he knew to his brother, the American-based trainer Christophe Clement.
“She showed a very good turn of foot in France, which is why we bought her,” Christophe Clement said.
Les Reys, now owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Peter Leidel, and Winters Equine, arrived at Saratoga, began training – and got sick. Nothing major, but enough to delay her North American debut until Sept. 13, when she went off at 6-1 facing eight in the $150,000 Winter Memories at Aqueduct. Les Reys proved ready for American racing, laying back before deploying her late run, this time diving willingly between horses in the homestretch, going on to a half-length victory.
“She’s been very easy to train in the morning. She’s a small filly, but she’s very powerful, very versatile,” Clement said.
Joel Rosario was aboard Les Reys in New York. Hot-riding Prat lands the mount Friday.
“Just want Prat to be sure we get a clean run and go from there,” Clement said.
Another French import, Opera Mundi, makes her American debut in the Valley View. Brendan Walsh has trained Opera Mundi since sometime in August after she and another French filly, Minoushka, shipped overseas. The pair has worked in company – a good match, Walsh said – since they began breezing. Minoushka made her American debut Oct. 10 at Keeneland and overcame a poor post position to win a first-level allowance by three lengths, earning an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.
“This filly actually came to me a little more accomplished than Minoushka,” Walsh said.
Opera Mundi’s two wins from eight starts came as a 2-year-old. Connections tried her second time out this year in the French 1000 Guineas, but Opera Mundi failed to handle the competition, finishing 14th.
Simply in Front rallied from ninth at the stretch call to win the 6 1/2-furlong Music City at Kentucky Downs. Jockey Luis Saez must use whatever speed the filly possesses to avoid losing too much ground from post 12. Buttercream Babe, who was sixth, and Pharoah’s Wine, who finished seventh, also exit the Music City.
Poolside With Slim finished fourth in the Winter Memories after Les Reys ran right past her. Memorialize hasn’t started since she won the Tepin Stakes last fall. Kalispera improved through the summer before running poorly at Kentucky Downs, while Sakura Blossom ships from California with modest stakes form. Nice as Pie has been sprinting, and Uphill Dance has been too slow.
Dancing N Dixie finished a close third over the Keeneland course this past April in the Appalachian and while she lacks positional pace stands a good chance of outrunning her 12-1 morning-line odds.
She does not have a great chance of beating Les Reys if the French filly runs to form.
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