Flintshire kills Bowling Green suspense
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There shouldn’t be much suspense in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green Handicap, where Flintshire appears to tower over his four rivals in the 1 3/8-mile turf race at Saratoga.
Flintshire is used to taking on the best horses in the world in Group 1 or Grade 1 events but shows up in the Bowling Green because trainer Chad Brown believes it fits the colt’s schedule for the remainder of the year better.
Brown’s fall targets for Flintshire are the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park on Oct. 1 and the Breeders’ Cup Turf on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita. Brown prefers to use the Bowling Green and the Grade 1 Sword Dancer here Aug. 27 before then.
“I don’t like the timing of the Arlington Million all the way to the Hirsch,” Brown said. The Arlington Million is Aug. 13.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Flintshire. Trainer Chad Brown is 15-7-0-2 with a $4.68 ROI over the past five years in turf route graded stakes races with last-out winners at Saratoga. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Flintshire won the Sword Dancer here last year when in the barn of Andre Fabre. Prince Khalid Abdullah of Juddmonte Farms sent Flintshire to Brown in part because of the 6-year-old horse’s affinity for firm turf.
He handled firm ground and eight rivals with aplomb in the Grade 1 Manhattan on Belmont Stakes Day, winning by 1 3/4 lengths, a result that never was truly in doubt despite the gallant effort of Ironicus.
“He ran terrific,” Brown said. “We couldn’t be more pleased with his Manhattan.”
Brown knows that pressure comes with running a horse as talented as Flintshire; there is “little room for error” when sending out arguably the best male turf horse in the country.
“I feel pressure, but in a good way,” Brown said. “We want the ball, we want these kind of horses. All we can do is set a plan together, try to execute it, be confident we’re right and we have the horse to do it.”
Javier Castellano rides Flintshire from post 2.
Twilight Eclipse has run against Flintshire twice. In the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Turf, he finished 1 1/4 lengths behind Flintshire when those two ran second and third behind Main Sequence.
In last year’s Sword Dancer, Twilight Eclipse finished third to Flintshire.
Twilight Eclipse is coming off a 2 1/2-length win over stablemate Smooth Daddy in a July allowance at Belmont.
“He was in a predicament where he never really had running room, I thought, the entire race,” trainer Tom Albertrani said. “He found a hole late and burst through it, which is unlike him to do.”
Manny Franco rides Twilight Eclipse for the first time, breaking from the rail.
Grand Tito, beaten 2 3/4 lengths by Flintshire in the Manhattan; Danish Dynaformer, the winner of the Grade 3 Singspiel at Woodbine; and Can’thelpbelieving complete the field.