A Not So ‘Discreet’ Return
By Christie DeBernardis
Last term’s GI Del Mar Oaks victress Discreet Marq (Discreet Cat) will return to the scene of her greatest triumph in hopes of collecting her second Grade I win while making her first start for her new owners Moyglare Stud in the GI Matriarch S. Nov. 30.
The gray worked five furlongs over the Belmont training track in 1:02.88, which was the eighth fastest of 21 works at that distance yesterday.
“Everything is good,” conditioner Christophe Clement. “The plan is to ship her on Tuesday to California to run in the Matriarch. I think it’s a great race for this filly at a mile on the turf and I’m excited to see her run there. Irad Ortiz will fly from New York to ride her.”
Winner of Belmont’s GII Sands Point S. and the Del Mar Oaks last summer, Discreet Marq was just a nose second to Egg Drop (Alphabet Soup) in last year’s renewal of the Matriarch, which was run at Betfair Hollywood Park.
“She got beat, but she ran a nice race last year,” Clement said. “She was second in the Matriarch and hopefully we can go one better this year. We will try.”
A narrow runner-up in her 2014 debut in Keeneland’s Apr. 12 GI Jenny Wiley S., the 4-year-old was fourth as the favorite in Belmont’s GI Just A Game S. June 7 and third in Saratoga’s GI Diana S. July 19. Runner-up to fellow New York-bred and this year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf heroine Dayatthespa (City Zip) in Saratoga’s Yaddo S. Aug. 24, Discreet Marq was sixth behind that rival in Keeneland’s GI First Lady S. Oct. 4 and secured her first victory of the season versus state-breds in Belmont’s Ticonderoga S. last time Oct. 18.
“She is a better horse than she was as a 3-year-old,” Clement said. “She is a stronger horse. She is fresh and she is doing well [heading into the Matriarch]. I am very happy with the way she is training. She is going from New York, which is cold and is not the greatest place to carry on at the moment, but she has done very well in New York and we will go from there.”
Though she remains in the Clement barn, where she has been since early 2013, Discreet Marq recently changed ownership at the Fasig-Tipton November sale where she sold to Moyglare Stud for $2.4 million Nov. 3. (Click here for sales coverage) Needless to say, Clement, who consigned the filly on behalf of her breeders Frank and Patricia Generazio, was quite pleased with the sale.
“This was a good sale for both parties,” Clement said. “It was a good sale for Mr. Generazio. [Discreet Marq] has been a good filly to him over the years. I think it’s a good acquisition for Moyglare who has been very successful over the past 20 or 30 years buying good American bloodstock and mixing it with European blood. I think the filly fits that mold perfectly. I think she will bring some American speed and some American pedigree, and she is a great cross to most of the leading European sires.”
The conditioner added, “I train for [Moyglare]. Fiona Craig, who is the racing manager for Moyglare Stud, and I have talked about it all year long and she was well aware of the filly. It just worked out for both parties and I am just very lucky that the filly is still in my barn.”
Clement plans to follow the same plan as last year and give the gray a well deserved break after the Matriarch in preparation for her final season.
“She will have a nice race in the Matriarch and then we will put her away and come back in the spring, maybe in the Jenny Wiley or a race like that,” Clement concluded. “Hopefully she can have a successful 5-year-old campaign and then she will go to Ireland to become a broodmare.”