Miguel Clement sets sights on KY Downs

By Mike Kane

FRANKLIN, Ky. (Wednesday, August 27, 2025) – With a total of six horses entered in the first three programs, trainer Miguel Clement is following the lead of his late father, Christophe, by running horses from the family’s powerful turf-oriented stable at Kentucky Downs.

Clement has three prepped for Thursday’s opening-day card, two for rich stakes on Saturday and one more for Sunday.

Peachtree Stable’s Tawny Port will be the first Clement stakes horse this season when he goes to the post in the $1 million Mountain Dew Bowling Green Gold Cup. One race later, NBS Stable and Elements Racing’s 5-year-old mare Danse Macabre will take another swing at the top prize in the $2 million G2 Never Say Die Ladies Turf Sprint. She was eighth in the race last year.

For many years the top assistant, Miguel, 34, assumed the responsibility of head trainer when Christophe died of a rare form of eye cancer at the age of 59 on May 25. The past three months have been a summer of sadness tempered by the joy from the success that the stable has earned at Saratoga Race Course and other tracks.

Through the first 34 days of the 40-day Saratoga season, the Clement barn narrowly leads the turf standings, a notable stat at a meet where five-time Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown usually dominates the grass racing. Clement’s horses have won 16 of turf 64 starts, a total of four graded stakes and earned $1,909,638. Brown is close behind with 14 wins and $1,727,233 in purse money.

Leading the way for the stable has been St. Elias Stable, Ken Langone, Steven Duncker and Vicarage Stable’s Deterministic. Two weeks after Christophe’s death, Miguel earned his first career stakes victory with Deterministic in the G1 Manhattan at Saratoga, followed by another victory in the G1 Fourstardave on Aug. 2.

“The horses are running great. The stable is in great form,” Clement said recently at Saratoga. “It’s like this most years. We hibernate in the wintertime. If you look at the form, a lot of horses will have one or two runs under their belt before here. As a result, you expect them to have one of their best performances in Saratoga. The stable is always very lively in Saratoga, and we always have a presence at this meet. It’s no different this year than previous years.”

Through the decades, the Clement stable has been a national leader in turf racing and has found success in Kentucky Downs stakes. That started with its debut runner in 2013, Mystical Star, who won the Ladies Marathon. Through the years, the stable’s overall record at Kentucky Downs is 9-14-8 from 47 starters, for earnings of $3,226,537. In stakes, Clement horses are 5-9-4 in 26 starts over the course, for $2,701,172.

Miguel spent part of the 2024 meet at Kentucky Downs, where the stable earned a career-best $1,097,732 with a 1-3-3 record from nine starters. He watched Carson’s Run finish second in the Nashville Derby and Dontlookbackatall end up as the runner-up in the Ladies Sprint.

“It’s a tremendous amount of money that they’re offering,” Clement said. “Even though we didn’t have a winner that day, it felt like a successful day.”

The stable’s earnings were more than double its previous best number, but Clement wasn’t pleased with just the lone victory.

“That’s not a stat we were proud of,” he said, “but seven of the nine runners were in the top three, and that we were proud of.”

Though Kentucky Downs’ 1 5/16 miles undulating course is unique in North America, Clement said he is comfortable with it, since he saw a wide variety of facilities during international internships and posts before rejoining his father’s stable.

“It’s very similar to some tracks I was working with in England: different turf course configuration, the shipping barns and the assembly areas,” he said. “In America, they’re considered unconventional. It’s fine. Just have to adapt.”

The Clement stable is based in Saratoga Springs about seven months of the year and does the bulk of its racing during those warm-weather months in New York. He said that Kentucky Downs provides an appealing variety of race distances that fit into his training and competition schedule.

“On opening day, we’re running two fillies in (second-level allowances),” he said. “One race is a mile and a half, and one is a mile and five-sixteenths. The only race we had here was a mile and three-eighths, and it did not go. And the next race in the condition book is a mile and a sixteenth.”

To get the longer races, Clement shipped Robert Evans’ Youknownothing in for the 1½-mile third race and the Newtown Anner Stud’s Unreasonable for the fifth. He sent along Intricate Spirit, an easy winner in his 5 ½-furlong maiden debut on Aug. 1 for the sixth race, a $250,000 6 ½-furlong open allowance for horses that were offered at Keeneland’s 2024 September yearling sale.

“He is running there because we don’t have any allowances here for 2-year-olds yet, sprinting on the grass,” Clement said. “You don’t have a stakes until early October, and I’m not overly keen on waiting eight weeks for the horse.”

Intricate Spirit is a Complexity colt co-owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Madaket Stables and Gail and Kenneth Beitz. Clement called him “very impressive” and is testing him in the allowance race.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “The whole point is to have this as a second start, and, hopefully, if he runs well, you get one swing at a Breeders’ Cup prep. That would be early October, more than likely, the stakes at Aqueduct. He’s doing very well. He showed a tremendous amount of speed. Will he handle the course as well as the addition of an extra furlong? I’m not sure, because he has a tremendous amount of early pace. Nevertheless,

we’ll find out.”

Clement is stretching out the 6-year-old Tawny Port in the 2 1/16 miles Gold Cup.

“He won the John’s Call, going a mile and five eighths (in 2023 at Saratoga),” he said. “I do believe he stays. He’s the most beautiful, efficient mover. He’s got a long stride. I don’t think an extra distance would be a disadvantage for him whatsoever.”

Danse Macabre had a rare off-the-board finish in the Turf Sprint last year. This will be her fourth consecutive year racing at Kentucky Downs. She won the Untapable Stakes in 2022, was third in the G3 Music City in 2023 and was a non-factor in the Ladies Turf Sprint a year ago. The 5-year-old was transferred to the Clement stable for this season.

“She’s doing great,” Clement said. “She’ll be ridden for the first time by Tyler Gaffalione. She had a well-needed win at Woodbine. She’d not won in a while, so that was a good idea to get an allowance race and good prep. The prep went perfect. She’s improved.

“She’s a touch of a non-sweater, so as a result, she’s better now than she was in the summer, because it’s cooler at the moment, she’s thriving in this condition, and she’s got previous form there. She was fortunate enough to do well with Kelsey Danner at Kentucky Downs in her early days. It’s always nice to run a horse there with previous form at Kentucky Downs.”