Ron Moquett (Coady Photography)
NYRA Press Office
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.— Trainer Ron Moquett will saddle Gus King’s first-time starting juvenile Chaperone in Saturday’s sixth race, a seven-furlong maiden special weight over the Saratoga Race Course main track.
Chaperone is by multiple Champion-producing stallion Curlin and out of the Grade 1-winning millionaire Arch mare It Tiz Well, whose 2017 sophomore season saw two-turn triumphs in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx, the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks at Delaware Park and the Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn Park. The chestnut colt comes from the same family as Solid Appeal, who was Canada’s 2013 Champion Grass Mare.
Chaperone arrives at his debut off a pair of five-furlong breezes over the Saratoga main track. Last Saturday, he went the distance in 1:01.21 eight days after working in 1:01.71.
Moquett said Chaperone will improve with distance given his two-turn-laden pedigree.
“He’s a nice horse. His mare is a Grade 1 winner going a route,” Moquett said. “He’s a 17-hand horse, so we understand that one turn may be just a starting point for him. We bought him to run route races, but this is a good place to get started.”
Chaperone’s rich bloodlines led to his $950,000 purchase price at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale.
“He reminded me of all the good things about the Curlins that you would like to see,” Moquett noted. “He’s a good-sized horse and had a certain sense of class about him. We thought there was a possibility that he would get well over a million and it worked out in our favor. You’d always rather have a horse with expectations and, as a trainer, it’s your job to manage the expectations until you get him where he needs to be.”
Chaperone will break from post 2 under Jose Ortiz.
