Lael Stables' talented grade 1 winner Chez Pierre is scheduled to start June 10 in the $200,000 Poker Stakes (G3T), a mile turf race for older horses on Belmont Stakes Day.
Trained by Arnaud Delacour, the 5-year-old Mehmas gelding was last seen scoring in the April 14 Maker's Mark Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland by 3 1/2 lengths over champion Modern Games. Modern Games subsequently captured the Lockinge Stakes (G1) overseas at Newbury while Maker's Mark Mile third-place finisher Up to the Mark won the Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Churchill Downs.
Chez Pierre has worked four times since the Maker's Mark Mile, and his final pre-Poker breeze is scheduled June 3 at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, trainer Arnaud Delacour said.
The middle-distance turf horse is 6-for-7. He won his first three outings in France with conditioner Francis-Henri Graffard before moving stateside in the summer of his 3-year-old season.
Chez Pierre won his first American outing by a neck in an optional claimer last March at Tampa Bay Downs before posting a 5 1/2-length victory in the one-mile Henry S. Clark Stakes six weeks later at Laurel Park. His lone loss came this year in the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Stakes (G3T) when racing off a 10-month layoff in February.
Anaconda, Annapolis , Dreams of Tomorrow, and Filo Di Arianna are other probable Poker starters.
