SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Christophe Clement, leading trainer at the Spa summer meet with 11 wins heading into Thursday’s card, was excited to pick up a fourth stakes triumph during the Saratoga meet on Thursday with Classic Lady, who fought gamely to the inside of fellow Michael Dubb color bearer War Canoe in the inaugural running of the Dayatthespa.
Clement said that the dark bay daughter of Jimmy Creed, who made her second start for the trainer, will likely remain against her New York-bred counterpart for the time being and could race in the $150,000 Yaddo on September 4 at Saratoga.
“I think it would be wiser to keep her against state-breds at the moment,” Clement said. “She ran well, it was an exciting and fun race to watch. She ran well both times, came back from the race in good shape.”
Owned by Dubb in partnership with Bethlehem Stables, Classic Lady arrived at the Dayatthespa off a narrow defeat behind multiple stakes winner Fifty Five in the Mount Vernon at Belmont Park. She has finished no worse than second in her last seven starts.
Clement said maiden winner Plum Ali, owned by Dubb, Madaket Stables and Bethlehem Stables, who graduated on debut over the Mellon turf course on July 23 will target the $100,000 P.G. Johnson on September 3.
“The plan is to train for the P.G. Johnson at the end of the meet,” Clement said.
The Saratoga meet has been a good one for not only Clement, but for some of his former trainees in the stallion department, as second-crop sires Tonalist and Summer Front have both sired graded stakes winners this meet.
Tonalist, the 2014 Belmont Stakes winner, sired Grade 3 Peter Pan winner Country Grammer, while Summer Front is the sire of Grade 2 Lake Placid winner Speaktomeofsummer.
“Both Summer Front and Tonalist have done very well and it’s very exciting for me because obviously I was involved with both of them,” Clement said. “They deserve to do well. They’re both very reasonably priced. If you look at their numbers, they’re both doing very well.”
NYRA Press Release
Photo: Classic Lady wins the 2020 Dayatthespa Stakes. Credit: Coglianese Photos/Chelsea Durand
