Chez Pierre (FR)

Chez Pierre was 2-for-2 in France as a 2-year-old and opened his 3-year-old season in May 2021 with a third straight victory, winning an allowance race at 1,200 meters (about three-quarters of a mile) at Chantilly.

Owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stables, best known as the owners-breeders of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, Chez Pierre was sidelined for more than 10 months before he made his U.S. debut for new trainer Arnaud Delacour March 9, 2022, at Tampa Bay Downs. Chez Pierre remained unbeaten with a neck victory in a one-mile allowance-optional claiming race.

The bay Mehmas gelding next earned his first career stakes win with a dominant 5 ½-length victory in the Henry S. Clark Stakes going a mile at Laurel Park.

Chez Pierre was sidelined again shortly thereafter and did not race for more than nine months, returning in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes in February 2023 and running sixth, beaten by four lengths, in the first loss of his career.

Chez Pierre more than made amends in his next start in the $600,000 Maker’s Mark Mile April 14 at Keeneland, where he defeated 2022 champion turf male Modern Games by 3 ½ lengths to secure a Grade 1 win.