chris clement

[38 special]

thoughts and prayers to the clement family and all his ofamily and owners

[HP]

Yes, just read this, much respect to a great horseman.  

HP

[catcapper]

Christophe Clement.

 Condolences to the Clement family.

 Christophe was genuinely hay, oats, water. In the age of rampant and legal steroids and equipoise, etc., he never ever used that stuff on his stock. It’s called class, real class, and his owners were likewise.
Real training and horsemanship.

A true loss to the sport.
Godspeed, Christophe.

[JohnTChance]

I didn’t know Clement. But I knew when you\'d handicap a NYRA long distance turfer - say, 1 3/8 miles or so - the paramount factor was who the trainer was. Most of the time, half the field could be eliminated because the trainer just didn’t win ultra-long. Clemente could. Interestingly, he could also win at 5 1/2.

Finally, when I think of Christophe Clement, I’ll think of how his TONALIST beat me by a head in the 2014 Belmont, costing me zillions. I’d under-keyed MEDAL COUNT (25-1) for 2nd, 3rd and 4th and that played out perfectly as he sat a great close-up trip. COMMISSIONER (28-1) was wiring the field and muscling his way to the wire, almost home. TONALIST was closely stalking him, but was perilously wide wide wide all around the track. I told myself: “There ain’t no way TONALIST can find more here and win!” But he did with a final surge. Sigh. With CALIFORNIA CHROME off the board, the payoffs were enormous. I coulda been in pizza for the rest of my life. But I settled for a ham sandwich. Those tough beats stay with you forever.

RIP