Cotillion: Clicquot brings 3-race win streak to a tough test

Brendan Walsh always feels positive vibes when he comes to Parx.

Walsh, based primarily in Kentucky, saddled his first graded-stakes winner at the track when Cary Street won the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup in 2014. He won it two years later with Scuba, and both of those Greenwood winners used the stamina test as a prep for the Marathon Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard.

He’s back this year with three runners, major players in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million co-features, and one in particular seems to put off similar strong feelings heading into the races.

Clicquot, a daughter of Quality Road, comes into the Cotillion Stakes on a three-race win streak including the Indiana Oaks (G3) on July 5 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Walsh trained the filly after his two Pennsylvania Derby-bound colts Gosger and David of Athens on Thursday and Friday mornings.

“She goes last,” Walsh said Thursday near the chute at the top of the stretch. “She’s so classy, nothing seems to bother her. She’d stand out here all morning if we needed her to.”

A few minutes later Clicquot galloped past, ears up, enjoying her work and responding to all of exercise rider Roger Horgan’s cues. She did more of the same Friday, training later in the morning and before the maintenance break.

Clicquot, the 8-1 co-fourth choice on the morning line for the Cotillion, takes a step up Saturday. She takes on favorites Scottish Lassie, Good Cheer and La Cara, along with four others, in her Grade 1 debut. Walsh concedes it’s a tall order against that group.

“She still has lots of upside,” Walsh said. “She’s a nice filly. Her own demeanor, she acts like a good filly. She’s got a lot of class. But that’s a good race. Tough. There are three Grade 1 winners in there. If she can win that she’s the real deal, you know? It’s a good race. It’s probably going to decide who is going to be the champion 3-year-old filly.”

Owned by X-Men Racing, Madaket Stables and SF Racing, Clicquot didn’t come to Walsh until last fall. She made the trip with his wintertime string to Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla., and made her debut in a seven-furlong maiden March 1 at Gulfstream Park. Clicquot finished sixth as the even-money favorite that day, after making the lead in mid-race and finishing 7 3/4 lengths behind fellow Cotillion runner and eventual graded-stakes winner Indy Bay.

Walsh called the debut a “typical 2-year-old race,” where she “showed speed and backed up.”

Clicquot won her next start going the extended seven-furlong trip at Keeneland in mid-April before another win in allowance company going 1 1/16 miles in late May at Churchill Downs. The Indiana Oaks came next and Clicquot won by four lengths over Top and eventual Audobon Oaks winner Sturgeon Moon. Edgar Morales rode that day, and Irad Ortiz Jr. reunites with Clicquot Saturday.

“I thought she was very impressive in Indiana,” Walsh said. “Sat in behind the speed and when he needed her, she came with a nice run. I’m happy with her. She’s still very lightly raced.”