Fourstar Crook gets another Grade 1 shot in Flower Bowl

ELMONT, N.Y. – She is a seven-time stakes winner, earned more than $1.3 million, and, for a 21-month period earlier in her career, she was literally unbeatable.

The only thing Fourstar Crook hasn’t done in her career is win a Grade 1 race, something her connections hope she can check off the list in Sunday’s $500,000 Flower Bowl Stakes at Belmont Park.

“She’s the poor man’s Lady Eli,” Fourstar Crook’s part-owner Michael Dubb said about the gutsy filly who has 10 wins and 3 seconds from 14 starts and was voted the New York-bred champion female turf horse of 2017.

“To me, she’s been sensational,” Dubb continued. “I had her since she’s been 2 years old. She doesn’t know she’s a New York-bred, she doesn’t know how long the races are, she doesn’t know she has the biggest gears on the track. She’s as honest as they come.”

Fourstar Crook, a daughter of Freud trained by Chad Brown, has won 11 of 18 starts with 4 seconds. She won eight straight races from October 2015 through July 2017. This year, stepped up into graded company consistently, she won the Grade 2 New York over Sistercharlie, her stablemate who beat her in two Grade 1 stakes including the Beverly D.

Sistercharlie is missing the Flower Bowl and is pointing to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs. The Flower Bowl offers a fees-paid berth to the Filly and Mare Turf.

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Fourstar Crook, seeking to give Brown his fifth Flower Bowl victory, is a closer who would benefit from some pace. Toward that end, Dubb has entered Feeling Bossy, a New York-bred stakes winner trained by Jason Servis, as a potential pacemaker. Dubb said he would evaluate the field before deciding whether to run Feeling Bossy.

“I entered her to keep my options open,” Dubb said. “She’s won twice going a mile and a quarter. I want to be sure there’s an honest pace. I wasn’t going to tell her to go motor, but I want to look at the race.”

David Cohen is named to ride Feeling Bossy from post 6. Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Fourstar Crook from post 7.

Lady Montdore was a front-running winner of the Grade 2 Glens Falls at Saratoga. Before that, she came from just off the pace to win a first-level allowance. Tom Albertrani, her trainer, said his filly is comfortable with either style.

“It’s not like our filly has a great deal of speed, she happened to inherit the lead last time because no one was going,” Albertrani said. “I think she was impressive in her first two races and could take another step forward and run a good race and go to the Breeders’ Cup.”

Tricky Escape brings a three-race winning streak into the Flower Bowl. She won the Robert G. Dick Memorial in July, the off-the-turf Waya Stakes at Saratoga, and the Ramsey Farm Stakes at Kentucky Downs. Though she’s been on the lead in her last two starts, trainer Lynn Ashby said she would prefer Tricky Escape to lay just off the pace while getting first jump on Fourstar Crook.

“She has a smidge better kick than we do, but we do have a powerful kick,” Ashby said. “It’s going to be a horse race.”

Ashby noted that in the spring, when Tricky Escape was beaten seven lengths in the Beaugay Stakes, she had her training interrupted by an abscess.

Holy Helena, winner of the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay here in May and beaten 2 1/2 lengths by Fourstar Crook in the New York in June, enters this spot off a three-month layoff. Danceland and Onthemoonagain, third and fourth, respectively, behind Lady Montdore in the Glens Falls, complete the field.

The Flower Bowl goes as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 1:30 p.m. It will be preceded by the Grade 1 Frizette for 2-year-old fillies and the Grade 3 Futurity for 2-year-old males on turf.

The Frizette and Flower Bowl are legs three and four of a transatlantic pick four wager that begins at 10:05 a.m. with the Arc de Triomphe and includes the Prix de L’Opera at 10:50 a.m., both from Longchamp.