Mutamakina to target major turf maraton stakes next year

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mutamakina, winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Long Island Stakes, will race in 2021, trainer Christophe Clement said.

Races like the Grade 3, $150,000 La Prevoyante going 1 1/2 miles on Jan. 23 or the Grade 3, $100,000 Orchid going 1 3/8 miles on March 27 will be considered, but Clement said he would like to have a fresh horse for the more lucrative marathon races later in the year.

“The plan is to keep her next year for those races going long on the grass,” Clement said. “We don’t have to over-race her for the winter, just try to campaign her and give her a career.”

Mutamakina ran down her stablemate Traipsing to win the Long Island by three-quarters of a length. Clement said Traipsing also would be pointed to marathon-type races in 2021.

“I thought she ran very well, she found maybe a niche in these races going long,” Clement said.

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Feel Glorious, winner of Friday’s Forever Together Stakes for Clement, will get a freshening with the idea of being ready for a return in the spring, possibly starting at Aqueduct where she is 3 for 3.

City Man, who won Friday’s Gio Ponti Stakes, could wheel back and switch surfaces to dirt in the $100,000 Alex M. Robb for New York-breds on Dec. 12.