By Christie DeBernardis
This past June in the TDN, Chris McGrath wrote about the luck that first-time partners West Point Thoroughbreds and R.S. Evans had when their $230,000 2017 Keeneland September yearling purchase, now named Egyptian Storm, had when her then-unraced brother turned out to be the Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy). Since August 9, the daughter of Pioneerof the Nile has had four workouts at Saratoga. Christie DeBernardis caught up with Egyptian Storm's trainer Christophe Clement to get an update on her highly anticipated debut.
TDN: Did you have a hand in picking out Egyptian Storm as a yearling at Keeneland?
CC: Absolutely. I liked her as a yearling, and we decided to form a partnership because Mr. Evans was worried about the filly being too expensive. As it turned out, she was expensive, but she was still reasonable. But I'm delighted. It's a great partnership. I've been lucky with West Point before. Egyptian Storm at the time was just a beautiful yearling. Justify did not exist as such, and he had not raced at the time we bought the filly in September. Mr. Evans thought she was going to be expensive. We formed a partnership. We've been lucky with the stable. We gave her plenty of time. She's in full work. I expect her to be ready to run sometime this fall, in late October or November, and I'm actually pretty excited about her.
TDN: It has to be pretty exciting for you and for the owners when Justify comes along, and now, little did you know, you own the sister of the Triple Crown winner.
CC: Sometimes, you get great news in public sales. You also have bad news, but it's nice to also have a few good-news occurrences.
TDN: I saw she had started working at Payson, and she took a little break, and now she's been steadily working at Saratoga.
CC: I just did not want to rush her. I wanted to keep her with us and just to give her time. Until September, she never came off the bridle in any of the works. Now we're being a little more aggressive because we're getting closer to the race. She's a very tall, leggy filly. She's going to be a very big three-year-old, and the idea is to keep her strong and give her a chance to level up and to have a career.
TDN: What are your initial impressions of this filly as she starts gearing up and getting closer to a race?
CC: She's very good mentally. Physically, being such a large frame, you cannot be too hard on her. You just have to go one step at a time. But she's pretty exciting to be around because she's been getting stronger all the time, her works are getting better, and she seems to be enjoying her training, so that's pretty exciting.
TDN: Obviously, you didn't train her brother, but you've seen him. Any initial comparisons? Any similarities?
CC: Well, if she's half as good as the brother I would really like her. The brother obviously was a top-class horse. The only similarity I could tell you is she's not chestnut, she's a bay, but she's a very large frame. She has plenty of size to her body.
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