The Flower Bowl (Grade 2) (BC)- $500.000 Purse
SAR- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
One Mile and Three Eighths on the Inner Turf
September 2, 2023
There’s a lot more than a bowl of flowers on the line at SAR on Saturday, as a field of six goes to post in the Grade 2 Flower Bowl, hoping to clinch their spot in the BC Fillies and Mares Turf in a couple months while earning a the top share of a nice $500.000 purse. The race has been held here every year since 2003, with historic purse levels ranging between $300.000 in 2003, to a one-shot deal of $750.000 in 2005. It is down from $600.000, the amount it was run for over the last two years. Until 2020, this was part of the card at BEL, and was run at a mile and a quarter there, before an eighth of a mile was added with the move to SAR in 2021. Last year, the great La Terrifiant took home the win in the race, and she is of course, still running well. She was last seen at the Beverly D at CNL a couple weeks ago and will not be back here to defend her crown. Let’s take a look now at the six that we will be seeing in this race!
#1- Untidy (Mb Stables, ridden by J R Velazquez)- He didn’t hit 1,000 last weekend, so Untidy, as of press time, could be the lucky one to hold that distinction. The honor that she does hold already is that she won the SAR Oaks here last month, narrowly over her stablemate November Storm. It was her third win of 2023, as she also captured the GP Oaks in April and even beat the boys in the Jerome back in January. Was within a length of winning the KYO as well, but unfortunately for the trainer that only meant a sixth-place result. Made her turf debut in July, and her win in the SAR Oaks showed that she likes the surface. She looks like the one to beat in here.
#2- Tessas Star (Glorify Stables, ridden by D E Centeno)- The Tessas Candy filly is winless this year, but that hasn’t come without near misses. She has been second three times and third another in her five starts as a four-year-old. Her best race was late April at KEE where she nearly went wire to wire at a mile and a half. Being able to find a way to get near the front more often than not is what earns her the spot in the Flower Bowl, and it may be that she is due for that win. Not unreasonable to think that it happens here, but she must be at her absolute best.
#3- Cardano (Mo Mentum Farm, ridden by L Dettori)- Appeared in a handful of ungraded stakes last year, and won one of them, the $80.000 Thunder Bay for ON-Breds, but most of this year was spent in overnights. That was the right call early on, as Cardano picked up three wins in four starts, and with that, the trainer not only sent her back to stakes, but to the graded level. The Grade 3 Trillium last month was a disappointment, but if she is entered here, the trainer is confident she will improve on that. Moving to the turf, where she has been at times, is the hope now for improvement.
#4- Sin City Girlz (Czech Out Farms, ridden by J L Ortiz)- The trainer claimed a good one for just $7.500 last September, and it’s safe to say that Sin City Girlz has come a long way in a year. She won three of her first four in her new silks, including the Grade 3 Very One at GP by an impressive four lengths. Struggled in her follow up race but rebounded with a win when dropped into an allowance. Her last two starts have seen her hit the board in the RGD (Grade 3) and Glens Falls (Grade 2), and a similar effort should get her right in the thick of this as well.
#5- Ginger Lucy (The Sidley Stud, ridden by L Saez)- She also comes out of the Glens Falls, and in it, she was a spot better than Sin City Girlz, running second. Since July of last year, she has finished somewhere in the top four in every race, so she’s getting a check for the trainer, but the not the biggest cut as often as he would like. While this is a horse that you can expect to be competitive in a race like this, I just have a hard time getting excited about her pulling off a win here. Perhaps the distance is ideal for her.
#6- Swam Pass (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by R M Hernandez)- A winner of three races during her 14-race career, and one of them came in her last start, the $100.000 Osunitas Stakes out at DMR. That broke a stretch of three disappointing races in a row, so now we will see if she can put back-to-back strong races together, which is something that has not happened for her, at all, as of yet. Eventually, she needs to find consistency, and this might be a good race for her to do that in. Not going to be one of my picks, though.
Prediction: 1-3-4-2
— NS
Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES
