{"id":392383,"date":"2025-09-02T17:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T17:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/392383\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T17:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T17:01:12","slug":"trainer-miguel-clement-with-a-village-behind-him-carries-on-late-fathers-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/392383\/","title":{"rendered":"Trainer Miguel Clement, with \u2018a Village Behind Him,\u2019 Carries On Late Father\u2019s Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Racing\u2019s incessant demands did not allow the family adequate time to grieve following the May 25 death of trainer Christophe Clement<\/a>, a Hall of Fame finalist. His loved ones instead found the best way to honor his memory \u2013 by banding together to continue his decades of success.<\/p>\n

Led by Christophe\u2019s 34-year-old son, Miguel<\/a>, through a testing and emotional transition, the stable posted 18 victories during the always-contentious Saratoga Race Course<\/a> meet to finish fourth overall in the trainer standings. To fully appreciate the level of success Miguel achieved in his first Saratoga meet on his own, he finished ahead Hall of Fame conditioners Bill Mott<\/a> (16 wins) and Steve Asmussen<\/a> (15).<\/p>\n

Six turf graded stakes triumphs headlined Clement\u2019s bang-up meet. Deterministic<\/a> provided him with his first Grade 1 score in the Resorts World Casino Manhattan Stakes<\/a> and that 4-year-old Liam\u2019s Map colt then doubled down in the FanDuel Fourstardave Stakes<\/a>. There also were Grade 2 victories with Far Bridge<\/a> in the Bowling Green Stakes<\/a>, La Mehana<\/a> in the Glens Falls Stakes<\/a>, Ozara<\/a> in the Ballston Spa Stakes<\/a>\u00a0and Bellezza<\/a> in the Flower Bowl Stakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Miguel sees it, he is only doing what is expected since his father was lost to a rare form of eye cancer at age 59. \u201cThe standard has always been very high from the beginning,\u201d he said. \u201cDad had unbelievable success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family continues to emphasize the importance of the quality staff Christophe assembled. As proud as she is of Miguel, his mother, Valerie, was quick to note, \u201cIt\u2019s very important to remember with the success of Miguel that he is carried by a village behind him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miguel\u2019s sister, Charlotte, is a key member of that village. She jumped in to oversee the business side of the business on an interim basis and enable her brother to focus solely on the many horses in their care. Valerie expressed her gratitude for the long list of owners who stayed the course.<\/p>\n

Miguel is eager to generate more opportunities with quality dirt horses and prove himself there. Otherwise, he is intently focused on following his father\u2019s lead. \u201cThe entire philosophy and organization and work ethic of the stable was instilled by my father, so it\u2019s very much his company that still goes on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He feels immense pressure because strong results are the norm for an operation designed to succeed on grand stages such as Saratoga. \u201cThe stable\u2019s philosophy is in such a way that in the winter we hibernate,\u201d he said, \u201cand then we bring them back around April or May, the top horses, and we expect them to hit their best performance from June to around November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Saratoga being in the middle of that timeframe, we do expect good results because we do emphasize New York racing and our stable is more oriented toward turf. As a result, I am not surprised because this is something we have been doing for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there were equal measures of joy, relief and sadness when 4-year-old Deterministic, with jockey Kendrick Carmouche<\/a> aboard, set the pace in the Manhattan, then fought for all he was worth to withstand Integration\u2019s furious charge by a head. That provided Clement with his first Grade 1 score, one he will always treasure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome. We all needed a distraction, my family and the stable,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought Deterministic merited a Grade 1 for a while. He\u2019s always been top class.\u201d<\/p>\n

As jubilant as the winner\u2019s circle scene was, as warm as the ovation was that descended from the grandstand, Clement told reporters of the \u201cmassive emptiness\u201d he felt without a father who meant everything to him and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a rollercoaster of emotions,\u201d said Miguel\u2019s wife, Acacia<\/a>, a broadcaster for the New York Racing Association. \u201cObviously, there have been some tremendous, wonderful celebrations of Grade 1s on the track but, of course, it\u2019s been very hard personally and professionally. Miguel worked alongside his dad as an assistant trainer for many years and they had a wonderful father-son relationship as well. It\u2019s certainly been a period of adjustment and it\u2019s been difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there is a sense of unfinished business, it involves the Breeders\u2019 Cup World Championships<\/a>, to be held Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at Del Mar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTruthfully, the stable had an ongoing struggle with the Breeders\u2019 Cup,\u201d Clement said. \u201cI think we finished second eight or nine times, something astronomical. We came awfully close many times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pizza Bianca produced the lone victory from 49 starts, taking the Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2021. There were seven second-place finishes and six thirds. Coretta (Filly & Mare Turf, 1999), Za Approval (Mile, 2013) and Best Performance (Juvenile Fillies Turf, 2017) missed by less than a length as runners-up.<\/p>\n

Hall of Famer Gio Ponti found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had the misfortune to collide with two Breeders\u2019 Cup buzzsaws. He was second best to the magnificent mare Zenyatta<\/a> in the 2009 Classic and to the great Goldikova<\/a> the next year in the Mile.<\/p>\n

Clement wants to take more time before determining his lineup for the season-culminating championships. Whichever horses he sends will be well meant.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo run a horse in the Breeders\u2019 Cup that is an outsider or doesn\u2019t really have much of a chance is not our objective,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Success at this year\u2019s event would mean everything to Clement as he finds his way forward. His father\u2019s birthday is Nov. 1.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Racing\u2019s incessant demands did not allow the family adequate time to grieve following the May 25 death of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-392383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115135780319702742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}