Castleton homebred Up the Ante easily captured the $100,000 Manila Stakes at Belmont on July 4th. Racing over his favored firm track the colt was expertly handled by Javier Castellano over the 8-furlong trip breaking best of all and staying there to comfortably repel all challengers by a generous 3 1/2 lengths at the line. Typical for his trainer Christophe Clement, the three year old colt is an improving sort that won an allowance over course and distance in May and then ran well to be second in a stake a few weeks ago at Delaware over their turf track that had been somewhat rain softened. Faced with good firm summer ground in the Manila, he glided effortlessly over the surface to notch his first stakes score of a fledgling career. Post race Christophe said “I was very happy with Castellano’s plan. He tried to steal the race in front and it worked. Having said that, I don’t really know if he stole it, because when he opened up, he really opened up, and he was very impressive. It’s a great win and reminds me of the times Gio Ponti ran with the same connections and it’s a nice flashback so I’m very happy with that,”
