Clement Wants Summer Front to Win Grade I

Trainer Christophe Clement said he hopes a change in race dynamics will help Summer Front earn his first Grade 1 victory when he competes in the $400,000 Jamaica Handicap on October 6 at Belmont.

Belmont is the site of Summer Front’s lone graded stakes victory, a half-length triumph in the Grade 3 Hill Prince on June 16. The Waterford Stable representative returned to take the Duluth overnight stakes on July 22 at Saratoga Race Course, then finished third in the Grade 1 Secretariat on August 18 at Arlington Park after racing just off a slow pace, leading into the stretch, and yielding late to Bayrir and Finnegans Wake.

“I thought [in the Secretariat], even though he finished third, he lacked a bit of racing luck,” said Clement. “He was closer to the pace than I would have liked, and the race was a little bit against him.”

The Secretariat was Summer Front’s first loss in six starts on the turf. Four of his five victories on the grass have come in stakes.

“He was unbeaten on the turf until he went to Chicago. I got him beat, as usual,” Clement quipped.

Clement said he plans to breeze Summer Front on the turf this weekend.