Too Sexy, Lady Edith Give Clement 1-2 Floral Park Punch
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Photo: NYRA/Susie Raisher
Too Sexy wins the 2021 Floral Park Stakes at Belmont Park
Trainer Christophe Clement will saddle defending race winner Too Sexy and graded stakes-placed Lady Edith in the $150,000 Floral Park Stakes, a six-furlong outer turf test for fillies and mares 3-year-olds and upward, Oct. 16 at the Belmont at the Big A fall meet.
The Elkstone Group's Too Sexy won four of eight starts last year, graduating last March at Gulfstream Park before defeating winners at Saratoga Race Course and again at Belmont Park.
The 5-year-old Quality Road bay made her stakes debut in last year's Floral Park at Belmont, closing from seventh to post a 3 1/4-length score. She followed with a game runner-up effort in the six-furlong Autumn Days Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack, missing by three-quarters of a length to multiple graded-stakes winner Change of Control .
Too Sexy, bred in Kentucky by Burleson Farm and McKenzie Bloodstock, has landed off-the-board in both starts this year, finishing fifth in the six-furlong License Fee Stakes in May at Belmont and seventh in the Smart N Fancy Stakes traveling 5 1/2-furlongs last out Aug. 20 at Saratoga.
"Five-and-a-half is a bit too short for her. She's done better at six, so this race is perfect," Clement said. "She won it last year. It's the fall and she seems to enjoy the fall."
Abbondanza Racing and Omar Aldabbagh's graded stakes-placed Lady Edith, has made three starts since being purchased at auction this winter and transferred to Clement. She finished fourth in the six-furlong Intercontinental Stakes (G3T) in June at Belmont ahead of two Spa turf starts at 5 1/2-furlongs, rallying for third in the Caress Stakes (G3T) in July and a close fifth last out in the Smart N Fancy.
Dylan Davis will pilot Too Sexy from post 3, while Joel Rosario will guide Lady Edith from post 2.
Sanford J. Goldfarb, Irwin Goldfarb and Nice Guys Stables' graded stakes-placed Kept Waiting , and a Maryland duo owned by R. Larry Johnson—Spun Glass and Can't Buy Love —are other threats.
Anthony Scott DeMario's Queen Sheba and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' multiple stakes-placed Igloo are further entrants. Igloo returns after a nearly four-month layoff for trainer Jonathan Thomas.
The 4-year-old Mshawish bay graduated gate-to-wire at first asking in December 2020 sprinting six furlongs over the Turfway Park synthetic and followed up two months later with a pacesetting third in the 6 1/2-furlong Cincinnati Trophy Stakes at the same track ahead of a 10-month layoff.
Igloo returned to winning form in March sprinting five furlongs over the Gulfstream Park turf before a frontrunning third in the six-furlong License Fee in May on the Belmont turf. She enters from a close fourth in a five-furlong optional-claiming turf sprint on June 22 at Delaware Park.
Multiple graded stakes-winner Frank's Rockette , Short Summer Dress , and Piece of My Heart are entered for the main track only.
The Floral Park is slated as Race 8 on Sunday's nine-race card. First post is 12:35 p.m. ET.
Belmont at the Big A, Sunday, October 16, 2022, Race 8Entries: Floral Park S.
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Igloo (KY)
Manuel Franco
122
Jonathan Thomas
6/1
2
2Lady Edith (KY)
Joel Rosario
122
Christophe Clement
9/5
3
3Too Sexy (KY)
Dylan Davis
122
Christophe Clement
4/1
4
4Queen Sheba (MD)
Luis A. Rodriguez Castro
122
Charles A. DeMario
30/1
5
5Can't Buy Love (KY)
Flavien Prat
122
Michael J. Trombetta
8/1
6
6Kept Waiting (NY)
Irad Ortiz, Jr.
122
Robert N. Falcone, Jr.
2/1
7
7Spun Glass (MD)
Feargal Lynch
124
Michael J. Trombetta
8/1
8
8Frank's Rockette (KY)
Rider TBA
122
William I. Mott
3/5
9
9Short Summer Dress (KY)
Rider TBA
122
Joseph R. Lee
10/1
10
10Piece of My Heart (FL)
Flavien Prat
122
Linda Rice
5/2
