McKulick heavy favorite in four-horse Flower Bowl

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With her much anticipated rematch with War Like Goddess failing to materialize after the latter missed some training time due to a minor illness, McKulick appears to be a standout and will likely go postward one of the shortest-priced favorites of the meet when facing just three rivals in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl at Saratoga.

The 11-furlong grass fixture is a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

McKulick benefited from a patient and well-timed ride by her regular jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. to defeat War Like Goddess by a neck when the pair met for the first time four weeks earlier at 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 2 Glens Falls. She won despite briefly dropping back to last in the run down the backstretch and switching leads a couple of times through midstretch before ultimately wearing down the favorite in the closing strides.

The win was the first this season and fourth overall for Grade 1 winner McKulick, a daughter of Frankel trained by Chad Brown. She earned a career-best 95 Beyer Speed Figure in the Glens Falls.

“I thought her last race was really impressive,” said Brown, who is seeking a record-setting eighth Flower Bowl victory. “Irad rode a great race and she ran down a terrific horse. She was a little slow to come into form this year, but now she’s doing better than ever.”

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Brown said he was not concerned about seeing McKulick switch leads a couple of times in the Glens Falls.

“She’s that way, she gets to looking around and she was kind of shifting a little coming in between horses,” Brown said. “It also looked like she was getting into the turf pretty good.”

The stretch-running McKulick will shoulder high weight of 122 pounds, including Ortiz.

Although it is Brown who usually has strength in numbers in these types of graded stakes on the turf, Christophe Clement will have that edge, countering the heavy favorite with Amazing Grace and Parnac. European invader Tamarama rounds out the compact lineup while making her U.S. debut for trainer Jack Sisterson.

Some might make a case that Amazing Grace can turn the tables on McKulick after finishing 2 1/2 lengths behind that rival following a bit of an eventful trip in the Glens Falls. Amazing Grace rushed up along the rail to briefly stick her head in front of McKulick in the run down the backstretch before taking up sharply and dropping back several lengths entering the far turn. She ultimately came on again with a belated rally that earned her third money in her local debut.

Amazing Grace won the Grade 3 Orchid going 1 1/2 miles in her first U.S. appearance this winter after being multiple Group 1-placed in Europe prior to joining Clement’s barn for her 5-year-old campaign.

“The race [Glens Falls] was against her. She ran very well, she finished very well, I was very happy. She was not very lucky,” Clement said. “The first two might have been the best two [turf] fillies in America at the moment.”

Parnac exits a third-place finish, beaten less than a length, in the Grade 3 Robert Dick Memorial on July 1 at Delaware Park. Her attempt to run back in an allowance race here three weeks ago was cut short by local officials, who scratched her and one other member of the field who ran in the Robert Dick due to extenuating circumstances after the first two finishers from the Dick Memorial suffered fatal injuries in subsequent races over the Saratoga turf course.

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Parnac was cleared to compete in the Flower Bowl after recently passing a PET scan examination and returning to the work tab to breeze five furlongs over the Oklahoma turf course in 1:02.60 on Aug. 24.

“She’s allowed to run in New York, she’s training well, it’s a little ambitious, but why not,” Clement said. “She was a touch unlucky in the race at Delaware, but this is a much tougher race this time.”

– additional reporting by David Grening

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