Daytona 'Stepping Stone' for Clubhouse Ride

Clubhouse Ride, who has earned $1,320,632, more than 50 times what he cost, returns to a surface over which he has won only once when he runs in Sunday’s Grade III Daytona Stakes at about 6 ½ furlongs on turf.

Craig Lewis, who has trained the 6-year-old Candy Ride horse throughout his 40-race career, hopes the versatile chestnut is up to the task.

“He’s worked real well, although we don’t have him very tight, or as tight as he could be,” Lewis said. “This is a race to propel him into 2015. I’d like to see him run well, but there’s a lot more in the tank. We haven’t tightened him down.

“This is like a steppingstone to something bigger, but we hope he runs well. I’d love to have had two more works in him. Then I’d really like him, but it is what it is.”

TALAMO HOPES TO CATCH KALOOKAN QUEEN RIVALS KNAPPING

Steve Knapp is hoping hot-riding Joe Talamo can get Harlington’s Rose to outrun her odds in Sunday’s $75,000 Kalookan Queen Stakes for fillies and mares at about 6 ½ furlongs.

In addition to winning one race on opening day and missing by a neck on 9-2 shot Home Run Kitten in the Grade II Mathis Brothers Stakes, Talamo rode the tail off 72-1 outsider Conquest Two Step, who missed by a game neck against 1-2 favorite Shared Belief in the Grade I Malibu Stakes.

“She’s as sharp as I’ve ever had her right now, and the owners decided they wanted to run here,” Knapp said of Harlington’s Rose, 15-1 on the morning line. “She likes the dirt and she’s on it.”

Talamo has ridden Harlington’s Rose once, finishing fifth in the CTBA Stakes at Del Mar last July. A distant fourth in the Grade I Chandelier Stakes last September, the filly’s best stakes effort was a second in the Evening Jewel in April.

“Joe always gives your horse a chance to win,” Knapp said. “There’s plenty of speed in there; he can sit right behind it and have her make one run.”

“One year in a 15-race streak, I think we won eight or nine for Knapp,” said Talamo’s agent, Scott McClellan. “I’ve got a lot of business for other trainers, so I don’t ride for Knapp that often, but I have hit streaks with him where I’ve done very well.”

Source: Ed Golden, Santa Anita Stable Notes