News & Barn notes

Clement Looking To Jumpstart Campaigns Of Grade 2 Winner Ozara And King’s Remark In Two Of Monmouth’s Turf Stakes Saturday

May 28, 2026

Trainer Miguel Clement has two entirely different goals for Saturday at Monmouth Park, with Ozara going in the Miss Liberty Stakes and King’s Remark following in the Jersey Derby later in the card.

In the case of Ozara, a Grade 2 winner, it’s the start of what he hopes will be an ambitious summer and fall campaign following a six-month layoff.

With King’s Remark, a 3-year-old colt, it’s a matter of finding out just how good he might be after winning his career debut impressively on April 30 during the Belmont at Aqueduct meet.

The Miss Liberty Stakes, the Jersey Derby and the Cliff Hanger Stakes – all on the turf – headline an eight-race card that features five grass races overall (Clement also has Intricity entered in the first race, a 5½-furlong Maiden Special Weight turf dash).

Ozara, last seen in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar on Nov. 30, launches her 2026 campaign in the $100,000 Miss Liberty at a mile and a sixteenth.

“We’re getting her ready for this year,” said Clement. “This is where it starts for her. It’s back to work for her. She did her work at Payson Park (Florida) and then we sent her to Saratoga to continue that.

“She has been training forwardly. We’re looking forward to getting the ball rolling with her.”

A 5-year-old Irish-bred daughter of Lope de Vega, Ozara won four times in eight starts a year ago and has seven wins from 15 career starts. She spent the end of her 2025 campaign racing in four graded stakes over her final five starts – two in Grade 1 company – before earning her well-deserved time off.

“She was a very good 2-year-old, a very good 3-year-old and a very good 4-year-old,” said Clement. “Hopefully, she will be a very good 5-year-old.”

She will be opposed by six other fillies and mares, 3 and up, in the mile and a sixteenth Miss Liberty Stakes.

“Even though she is a Grade 2 winner she gets all of the weight off (carrying 118), which is a phenomenal condition for us,” said Clement, who took over Ozara’s training from his late father Christophe Clement five starts ago. “She’s game. She won her first time out at Saratoga, which was no surprise. We thought highly enough of her after that to run her in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine in her next start where she just missed getting black type (finishing fourth).

“So this is the start for her. After this she will go back to Saratoga for what we hope will be a good, long campaign, but she needs to get started to do that. She will have her share of options ahead. It’s just a question of how she comes back. The options are there for her. The problem is not finding the right race. She needs to be good when she gets there.”

King’s Remark, an Irish-bred son of Kingman, is a late bloomer who showed potential when he started working on the grass. He won his career debut by two lengths in a one-mile Maiden Special Weight turf race in New York.

Both Ozara and King’s Remark are owned by Cheyenne Stable.

“We took all the time in the world with him. We were fortunate that Cheyenne Stable was very patient and allowed us the time to develop him,” said Clement. “He was very impressive in his debut. This seems like a logical next start.”

The one-mile Jersey Derby attracted a field of eight.

As impressed as Clement was with the colt’s debut, he still needs to see more, though.

“We did not know how could he would be or could be,” he said. “But his last three or four works he really started to turn the corner. When we put him on grass he elevated his game to another level. Until then he was a bit backwards. Once he started working on the turf everything changed for him.”

First race post time Saturday is 12:50 p.m.