NYRA/Adam Coglianese
By Sarah Mace
Too Discreet (Discreet Cat), a full brother to Grade 1 winner and millionaire Discreet Marq, has some awfully big shoes to fill, but the Patricia Generazio homebred is beginning to make noise of his own. On Saturday the grey scored a front-running victory in Belmont’s open $100,000 Paradise Creek Stakes for 3-year-olds going seven furlongs on the Widener turf course. The win was his second stakes score in four career starts.
Trained by Christophe Clement, Too Discreet comfortably defeated a field of state-bred turf sprinters in his debut at Saratoga on August 2. Eighteen days later he got up late to collect a victory in the Schenectady Stakes at the same trip.
After eight months on the bench, the colt kicked off his sophomore campaign with a solid fourth in the 1 1/16-mile Woodhaven. When entries were drawn for the Paradise Creek, Clement commented, “I thought he got a bit tired [in the Woodhaven]. Maybe it was a bit too far and it was his first race in a while. He’s trained well and has had some good works on the turf. He’s got natural speed and it’s going to be a good race.”
Second choice on the board at post time at odds of 5-2, breaking from the four-hole in the field of six and reunited with jockey Joel Rosario, aboard for both Saratoga victories, Too Discreet got out of the gate well and shortly pulled his way to a 1 1/2-length lead. He proceeded to take the field through evenly-matched opening splits in 23.05 and 46.07.
Unchallenged into the head of the lane, Too Discreet swung out three wide and cruised home in hand to secure the win by 2 1/2 lengths. After six panels in 1:08.78, he stopped the clock after seven at 1:20.28. Conquest See Ya closed from midpack and split horses to finish second, while Might Mo stalked his way to a third-place finish. [VIDEO]
Rosario said, “He broke in front right away. I was cruising the whole time and I let him take his time and get settled in and he did the job.” The pilot added, “He’s been [consistent]. He’s a good horse and I was happy with the way he ran today.”
Clement added, “He had been working very well heading into this race. He worked under Joel on the turf and I saw on paper the horse from Mr. [Bill] Mott [Mighty Mo] would be very tough but he got a great ride. Very patient, good fractions; he’s a very nice horse.”
As to the future, Clement said, “I’ve got to think about where we’ll run him next and at what distance. You don’t have many races at six or seven furlongs so we might have to go a mile, but I’m pretty sure he’ll go a mile. He’s Discreet Marq’s full brother and she [ran] a mile really well. When he ran at Aqueduct, maybe he was not 100 percent fit going a mile and sixteenth on the turf. Let’s just enjoy this for a day and go from there.”
With three wins and a fourth to his credit, Too Discreet has earned $168,800.
Too Discreet’s dam is the multiple stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed Marquetry mare To Marquet ($198,236), a Kentucky-bred Generazio homebred. Frank and Patricia Generazio Jr. also bred To Marquet’s dam, Florida-bred Pretty Momma, a multiple stakes winner.
To Marquet’s 2010 foal, multiple New York-bred champion Discreet Marq, earned over $1.2 million in a stellar career, but the 19-year-old mare has been very successful with five progeny winners in all. Marquet Cat (Cat Thief) earned nearly $400,000 from 61 starts and Marquet Madness (Pico Central) who earned over $200,000. To Marquet currently has a 2-year old full brother to Discreet Marq and Too Discreet named Discretionary Marq and filly this year by Gio Ponti.
