Stephanie's Kitten Wins Flower Bowl Again
{{monthName}} {{day}}, {{year}} {{hour12}}:{{minuteTwoDigit}}{{dayPeriod}}
Multiple Grade 1 winner Stephanie's Kitten fully rounded back into form on Saturday at Belmont Park and took the Grade 1, $500,000 Flower Bowl Invitational for the second straight year under a perfect ride by Irad Ortiz, Jr.
Through four prior starts in 2015, Stephanie's Kitten had failed to recapture the form that saw her win last year's Flower Bowl and finish second in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, but the 6-year-old daughter of Kitten's Joy was trending in the right direction heading into Saturday after putting in a solid run in the Grade 1 Beverly D. on August 15 at Arlington Park.
Trained by Chad Brown for Ken and Sarah Ramsey, Stephanie's Kitten broke sharply from the rail and took up position just off a moderate pace set by her stablemate Danza Cavallo of 26.45 seconds for the opening quarter-mile, 52.78 for the half and 1:18.10 for three-quarters.
Leaving the far turn, Stephanie's Kitten slipped through some minor traffic and took dead aim on Danza Cavallo, who continued to maintain a slim advantage at the top of the stretch. The two proceeded to duke it out for the ensuing furlong, with Danza Cavallo holding grimly to the lead, but Stephanie's Kitten wore down her less accomplished stablemate inside the eighth pole and edged away to a 1 ½-length victory.
With the victory, Stephanie's Kitten surpassed $3 million in earnings and punched her ticket to the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf on October 31 at Keeneland.
"You look at her - she's been running at the Grade 1 level from age 2 to 6 - that's very rare," said Brown. "It's a little similar to last season when in her first couple starts she didn't run well, and then she rounded into strong form, right into the Breeders' Cup. This year it was a little different in that she kicked off the year with a win in the Hillsborough, but her form then regressed and we were asking ourselves the same questions. A combination of her currently training as well as she has all year and catching soft ground in her last two starts resulted in her turning the season around."
Brown was also complimentary of runner-up Danza Cavallo, who appeared overmatched on paper entering the race off respective eighth- and 10th-place finishes in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa and Grade 3 Waya at Saratoga Race Course.
"She ran great," he said. "We supplemented her into the race on short notice given the weather. She's a filly that's always trained really well and hasn't performed in her past couple starts, which has been disappointing because she works well. It's a Grade 1 and we had to supplement her, but I wanted to take it because she's a different animal on soft ground. She's a quality filly."
European shipper Mutatis Mutandis finished third, 3 ¼ lengths behind Danza Cavallo and two lengths to the good of the Brown-trained Watsdachances.
The 7-5 favorite, Curvy, finished fifth, followed by Regardez, Distorted Beauty and America.
Covering 1 ¼ miles on Belmont's Widener turf course, which was labeled as "soft" for the race, Stephanie's Kitten stopped the clock in 2:06.23 and returned $6.90 on a $2 win wager.
Source: NYRA Communications
Source: NYRA Communications
Read More
Wolfie's Dynaghost , a 7-year-old homebred gelding for Woodslane Farm, led all the way under Luis Saez to...
Fully Subscribed showed her class in her stakes debut when she entered the stretch with a group of...
Juddmonte’s Kentucky homebred Disco Time was ultra-impressive when improving his record to 5-for-5 in Saturday’s $200,000 Dwyer , a...
Highplainsdrifter led all performers with a 136 Horse Racing Nation speed figure at Del Mar, winning a $50,000...
Ragtime, the Grade 3 Dogwood winner who most recently placed third in the Raven Run (G2), breezed four...