Chelsea Durand Photo

Speaktomeofsummer displays closing kick in Chelsey Flower

by Ryan Martin

Speaktomeofsummer sat well off a leisurely pace and displayed a hot turn of foot when it mattered most to take her stakes debut in Sunday's $100,000 Chelsey Flower at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The Waterford Stable-owned dark bay arrived at the one-mile event for juvenile fillies over the inner turf after graduating second time out on the Monmouth Park turf on September 28 for trainer Christophe Clement.

Guided by Junior Alvarado, Speaktomeofsummer was second to last early on as stakes-placed Quality Heat took the field of 10 into the first turn recording an opening quarter-mile in 24.42 seconds and the half in 49.70 seconds over a firm turf course.

At the top of the stretch, Speaktomeofsummer was well back and trapped on the rail behind horses, but Alvarado angled her six-wide where she had dead aim on Quality Heat and Astoria Kitten, who battled down the lane with English Breeze sliding up the rail.

In the final furlong, Speaktomeofsummer took charge winning by two lengths in a final time of 1:38.87 ahead of English Breeze, who made a late run to get second. It was another 1 ¼ lengths back to Quality Heat in third.

Completing the order of finish were Astoria Kitten, Sparkling Sky, Bredenbury, Lady Fatima, Micheline, Wicked Title and Sky Kitten.

Speaktomeofsummer provided freshman sire Summer Front, who also was trained by Clement and owned by Waterford Stables, with his second stakes winner after Flying Seabee won the Grade 3 With Anticipation over the summer at Saratoga.

"She's a very nice filly. We brought her as a foal from Airdrie Stud, who also stands Summer Front and is her sire," Clement said. "She showed her ability today and finished up strong, which is very nice. She is coming along nicely and ran well today, so it's exciting going forward."

Initially, Alvarado said he did not plan on having his filly sit far back, but altered plans when the field took off early on up front.

"I was thinking we were going to sit third or fourth and she broke well, but then they ran away from us the first part of the race" Alvarado said. "I saved ground and all the way down the backside, I had a good feeling, but I thought we were too far back. It's not where I wanted to be, but at the half-mile pole she took the bridle very nicely and I just tried to keep saving ground. She carried me the whole way. I just had to drive her through traffic, but I had a lot of horse. When I asked her at the end, she had a big turn-of-foot."

Returning $36 for a $2 wager, Speaktomeofsummer cashed $55,000 for the victory, enhancing her lifetime earnings to $84,000 with a record of 3-2-0-0.

Bred in Kentucky by Brereton C. Jones, Speaktomeofsummer is out of the graded stakes winning Harlan's Holiday broodmare Silver Reunion, whose other five offspring are all winners. Speaktomeofsummer was acquired for $135,000 from the Keeneland November Sale in 2017.