Breeders’ Cup Connections: Deterministic Anchors Miguel Clement In New Chapter

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Miguel Clement has many memories of the conversations he had with his father about Deterministic (Liam’s Map).   In Christophe’s book, a good horse could perform well across different surfaces and distances, and he always believed Deterministic fit that description. Over the past two years, Deterministic has proven him right, checking both those boxes for the Clement racing stable and serving as a steady presence through a poignant period of change following Christophe’s passing in May.

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00:00Deterministic was there for many years. He's been there for several years and he's been a joy to

00:13train at the age of two, a joy to train at three, and he's been remarkably consistent. So I guess

00:18the one great constant thing I've got going in my life, especially at the moment, is having a

00:22horse like Deterministic. When he first joined us as an assistant to my dad and we both loved

00:28him from the get-go. He was always amazingly consistent and perhaps this year he was able

00:32to improve his form a bit because we've been using more his tactical speed and he's

00:36able to probably look after me. He was Sable's first grade one winner now that we took over

00:40and he's been very, very good to us so I'm very lucky in that sense. He was very impressed

00:45in the Fort Marcy. We used his speed, he was 40 place, I think he broke a track record that

00:48day and then we decided to use the same approach going in the Manhattan Stakes, which for the

00:52ground was a bit soft, which may not have been ideal for him. Never has his class prevailed.

00:56From the four-star Dave, you know, he's not just one-dimensional when he's speed forward,

01:00he's able to rate and he's very, very rateable in the sense that, you know, he waits for the

01:04rider's cues. And the fact that he's that versatile where he can just wait for a rider's

01:08command was quite impressive, I thought. He was able to sit second just half the length

01:12off the leader and just waited for his cue. Not many horses could do that without traveling

01:17strongly or being a bit keen or rank or, you know, running too much freely on the bit. So I was

01:21very impressed by that. And then per usual, athleticism carried us and he showed a great

01:26turn of foot and he just stopped class. The British Cup is what it's all about at the

01:30end of the day. That's the big championship meets and it will be very rewarding and very

01:34fulfilling for many reasons. The source has been great to us because when we needed him

01:38most, he provided a well-needed distraction for both the stable, the family and his win in

01:44the Manhattan and the first day were very much needed. The British Cup is always the end goal and

01:49big, you know, championships that we need to attend. We had many, many painful memories. You know,

01:54when Gio Ponti struck the front and got run down by Zenyatta, I thought he was going to win that day.

01:58That was a very painful memory when he ran second to Zenyatta. And then he did the very next year

02:03where he ran second to Gold de Covas. That was a very painful memory too. I suppose we have to

02:08talk about the stable's highlights, which would be Pizza Bianca from Mr. Flea and Jose Ortiz,

02:12when they made that incredible turn of foot to weave through traffic to get up. That was very impressive.

02:17It's very special. It's very meaningful to the stable and we're very lucky in that sense.

02:22It's something we've done many times, but not with Dad by our side, so it'd be a bit different.

02:26We'll have to make it work.

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