Clark (Grade 2)- $600.000 Purse
CD- For Three Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Eighth on the Dirt
November 28, 2025

The Grade 2 Clark will be run at CD on Friday, and the silks of Royalty Stables will be on full display as the trainer starts nearly half of the field, with three of eight runners. It’s a very capable group, with two of them having run in the BC earlier this month, but the other trainers are looking to take home the top prize for themselves. The first edition of this race was in 2003, and it would become a handicap one year later, a status it carried through 2021. It ran as a Grade 1 in 2006, and then from 2011-2022 with its purse peaking at $750.000, but the $600.000 available today is one of the higher such offerings. Investment Center took home the win in the Clark last year, doing so for TwinTowersRacing. He’s still active but has not won since the Clark and has struggled as of late. TwinTowersRacing pins his hopes on another this year, and here’s a look at all of them heading to the starting gate:

1- Never Hold Back (The Sidley Stud, ridden by P Lopez)- Claimed by The Sidley Stud for $16.000 at PRX in April, following a long career that was mostly in claimers outside of a couple ungraded races in 2021. He had run well in those races, and The Sidley Stud didn’t hold back with greater placement. First, a couple of starter allowances were tried that went well, leading to a return to the ungraded ranks after a long hiatus. Never Hold Back continued to look good, and would win the Grade 3 Premiers two back, where he knocked off the trainer’s more well-known entry, some horse named Spankersville, along the way. Won the $250.000 Empire Classic following that and works well. All is well with him. The trainer’s next Spankersville? Okay, I won’t get too carried away. Yet.

2- Beyond Our Grasp (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by T Gaffalione)- Looking to get the trainer his second straight win in the race, but winning is not something that he has done a lot of over his career. Only two of his 24 races have resulted in wins, and none have come at the stake level. Beyond Our Grasp has primarily run in overnights, and in February, things began to click with stronger and more consistent results, a run that finally resulted in that elusive second win in July, coming at a mile and a half on the turf at PRX. It’s been three graded races since then, and he has not been a factor in any of them, all coming on the turf. Perhaps a move to the dirt, where he ran a few times earlier this year, can lead to a better result.

3- Suspect The Worst (Nakamura Stables, ridden by I Castillo)- This is another horse that is moving from the turf to the main track, but unlike Beyond Our Grasp, it’s not because of performance. Suspect The Worst has been hot, with three wins over his last four races. That’s a stretch that is highlighted by $150.000 Schiller at AQU two back, and his most impressive race is actually the one that he did not win. Earlier this month, Suspect The Worse ran second in the Grade 3 River City Handicap right here. I’m not seeing what the trainer is seeing with this surface move, but he knows more about racing virtual horses in his pinky than I know in total. Perhaps it’s just a product of racing this time of year and chasing this purse.

4- Black Swan Event (Team 7 Illusions, ridden by R Bejarano)- Here is the first of our trio of three-year-olds in the race, and it will earn them a two-pound weight allowance. Black Swan Event was seen running in some KYD preps this spring but would struggle in them. Ultimately, that led to his losing the ability to breed in April, and it has paid off for Team 7 Illusions. Since the geld, Black Swan Event has been first or second in four of the five races that he has been on, with the signature win to this point being the $300.000 ELP Derby in August. Comes out of a win in a $94.000 open allowance here last month and hopes to improve on a sluggish graded record.

5- General Zod (Royalty Stables, ridden by F Geroux)- Now, we will finally get to the Royalty Stables entry, as the trainer starts three of the four that will break from this half of the gate. General Zod ran at DMR in the BC Sprint earlier this month but struggled in the stretch and finished towards the back of the field. He had been hot leading into the race, winning the Grade 1 Crosby as well as settling for second in a photo at the Grade 2 Phoenix. Each of his last four races has seen him earn a triple digit SRF, as well. He’s been sprinting since July but was experienced at going long before that with hit and miss results.

6- Inoue (Royalty Stables, ridden by B Curtis)- Like his stablemate, Inoue was also a part of the BC festivities, and he would just miss a win in the BC Turf Sprint. Instead, he settled for second in a photo. Of course, this is not on turf, nor is it a sprint, so there is not much more that we can take from that, or the races that led up to it. The last time that Inoue went long was back in February, and it was on dirt in the SUN Derby. Ran third there, but KYD preps would be called for him despite that. For his career, he does only have three wins in 16 starts and actually is still looking for his first graded win.

7- Diametric (Mb Stables, ridden by J R Velazquez)- While spending most his career in overnights, Diametric has consistently been able to hit the board, doing so in all but one of his 18 starts and was fourth on the other occasion. Diametric was given his first opportunity to run at the graded level at KEE last month, in the Grade 3 Fayette, and he went wire to wire while earning a career best 101 SRF. Perhaps he got lost in the shuffle a little bit in the overall depth of this barn, but everything about Diametric suggests that he will continue to have success at this level. The works are nothing but bullets, but this is his biggest test to date.

8- Pincay (Royalty Stables, ridden by R Santana Jr)- Broke his maiden in his fifth career start, coming in his first race as a gelding. He had multiple near misses right before that, so perhaps the geld put him over the top. He had been running a mile or more leading up to that but was cut back to seven furlongs to get that win. Pincay has not run longer than that since, but his works are right in line with the rest of these at longer distances. Last time out, he won for the second time, here in an allowance. Twice we have seen Pincay in graded races, and most recently he was sixth in the SA Sprint Championship.

Prediction: 1-4-7-5

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES