After Facing Sharks, Clyde's Image to Try Poker Stakes

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After Facing Sharks, Clyde's Image to Try Poker Stakes
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Leslie Martin
Clyde's Image wins an allowance/optional claiming race in February at Gulfstream Park

After earning a pair of grade 1 placings at long odds in turf races in Kentucky, Clyde's Image will take a step down the class ladder in search of his first graded stakes win in the $300,000 Poker Stakes (G3T) June 16 at Belmont Park.

Sullimer Stable's Clyde's Image drew inside for the Poker, a one-mile race on the Widener Turf course that attracted nine older horses.

Lightly raced Clyde's Image earned a grade 3 placing in 2017 but raced just once last year, earning a front-end allowance win on the inner turf at Belmont. This year, after securing an allowance/optional-claiming race win Feb. 24 on the Gulfstream Park turf, trainer Thomas Bush saw enough to enter the 5-year-old Get Stormy  gelding in the Maker's 46 Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland where he responded with a runner-up finish at 46-1 odds.

Clyde's Image then showed consistency by securing a second straight grade 1 placing, this time at 27-1, when he led in the stretch of the Old Forester Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Churchill Downs before settling for third, finishing less than two lengths behind turf male division leader Bricks and Mortar.

Bush has been encouraged by the way Clyde's Image has maintained his form from year to year.

"We had some space between the Old Forester and this race so the timing works out well," Bush said. "We took a bit of a chance traveling with him to Keeneland and running in such a deep race, but he was doing well and he deserved a chance. He had good 3-year-old form before he got hurt. Not all horses are able to duplicate their form as an older horse the way he has, but he's one of those special ones."


Entries: Poker S. (G3T)

Belmont Park, Sunday, June 16, 2019, Race 8

  • Grade IIIT
  • 1m
  • Turf
  • $300,000
  • 4 yo's & up
  • 5:18 PM (local)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L
1 1Clyde's Image (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Javier Castellano 116 Thomas M. Bush 7/2
2 2Hembree (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Irad Ortiz, Jr. 116 Michael J. Maker 12/1
3 3Krampus (KY) Jose Lezcano 120 William I. Mott 10/1
4 4Gucci Factor (NY) Joel Rosario 120 Christophe Clement 5/1
5 5Master Merion (KY) Manuel Franco 116 Wesley A. Ward 15/1
6 6Ticonderoga (KY)Keeneland Sales Graduate Jose L. Ortiz 116 Chad C. Brown 5/1
7 7Therapist (NY) Eric Cancel 120 Christophe Clement 8/1
8 8Breaking the Rules (KY) John R. Velazquez 120 Claude R. McGaughey III 6/1
9 9Dr. Edgar (KY) Dylan Davis 120 Barclay Tagg 3/1