Deterministic seeks Fort Marcy repeat, Ridari makes U.S. debut

Miguel Clement enters the Fort Marcy with two horses that could pull the race in opposite directions, and that is what makes Saturday’s turf mile-and-an-eighth more than a simple title defense. Deterministic, the defending winner, has the resume of a horse who can force the issue from the front. Ridari, making his U.S. debut, gives Clement a different kind of pressure point, one that could turn the $175,000 Grade 3 at Belmont at the Big A into a race shaped as much by tactics as by class.

Deterministic already proved he belongs in this spot. He won last year’s Fort Marcy by 4 1/2 lengths in 1:45.70, then a course record on the outer turf, with Kendrick Carmouche rating the pace perfectly after Clement let him roll from the front. The 5-year-old returns to the same race with even more standing: a two-time Grade 1 winner, a 7-3-1 record from 13 starts and nearly $2 million in earnings. He also comes back fresh after scratching from Keeneland’s Maker’s Mark Mile on April 10, and Clement said the colt was “just a little slow at Keeneland” but had “a lot of energy and life to him.” That sounds like a horse still holding form, not one waiting for one.

The bigger question is what Ridari changes. The French-bred colt won the Group 2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein at ParisLongchamp in October by a nose, and he also owns wins in the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau and a third in the Group 3 Prix Messidor. John Stewart’s Resolute Racing purchased him privately for €950,000, and Clement will send him out from post 1 with Jaime Rodriguez aboard. On paper, that makes Ridari a serious import with enough quality to matter immediately. In practice, the inside draw gives Clement another lever, whether Ridari is sent early, tucked in behind Deterministic, or used to make the opening stages less comfortable for the rest of the field.

That is the real story of this Fort Marcy. Clement is not just bringing a defending champion back to a race he already owned; he is trying to double-hand the pace with one proven domestic miler and one European newcomer in the same graded stake. It is a smart setup if the barn reads the race correctly, and a vulnerable split attack if neither horse gets the trip it wants. The backdrop adds weight, too, with Christophe Clement elected posthumously to the 2026 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame class, to be enshrined on Friday, Aug. 7, in Saratoga Springs. For Miguel Clement, this Fort Marcy is part tribute, part test case, and a sharp early read on the New York turf division.