Clement Eyes Oaks Repeat With Sea Queen
A year ago Christophe Lorieul, assistant to trainer Christophe Clement, journeyed West from their New York headquarters with 3-year-old filly Discreet Marq and returned, less than a week later, following a victory in the Del Mar Oaks.
He’s back. This time with Sea Queen, a daughter of Lemon Drop Kid who has had a month of freshening since finishing second in the Grade I Belmont Oaks Invitational at Belmont Park on July 5. With three wins and two seconds in six lifetime starts and earnings of $401,495 for owner Stonetower Stable, Sea Queen is the 2-1 morning line favorite in a field of nine for the 58th running of the Grade I, $300,000 1 1/8-mile grass test.
The trip here from New York, via Ontario airport, was without incident and Sea Queen has settled nicely into the pre-race routine.
“Our main hope in coming out here is that she will be very competitive in this race. We won it last year and we’re just trying to duplicate,” Lorieul said.
“She is a small-framed filly and she doesn’t need much work. She worked last week on the grass at Saratoga (5f, 1:00.40), so she is fit. She is going to school in the paddock; all we need to do is get her used to her new surroundings.”
A year ago Lorieul said Discreet Marq, despite a front-running form, could rate off the pace and win. Under Julien Leparoux, Discreet Marq came from third to win by three-quarters of a length. A similar scenario with Sea Queen, under Rafael Bejarano, would be just fine.
“She is a filly that needs to be fairly close to the pace because she doesn’t have a great turn of foot,” Lorieul said. “But she always tries. I would say we don’t have a very good post (far outside), so the object will be to break and get a good position. Hopefully, there will be a couple of speed horses in the race and she could be stalking.
“She does not have to be on the lead to win and it will be up to Bejarano.”
The Oaks field, from the rail out: Diversy Harbor (Mike Smith, 9-2), Famous Alice (Drayden Van Dyke, 12-1), Istanford (Martin Garcia, 5-1), Personal Diary (Corey Nakatani, 8-1), Stellaris (Kent Desormeaux, 12-1), My Conquestadory (Victor Espinoza, 5-1), Tepin (Tyler Baze, 12-1), Odisseia (Joe Talamo, 8-1), Maibaby (Elvis Trujillo, 15-1), Sea Queen (Rafael Bejarano, 2-1).