War Like Goddess' Flower Bowl win gives her BC Filly and Mare Turf berth
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - War Like Goddess continued her steady ascent in the Filly and Mare Turf division's pecking order and became a Grade 1 winner for the first time by rallying to a convincing and popular 2 1/4-length triumph over Great Island in Saturday’s $600,000 Flower Bowl at Saratoga.
War Like Goddess also earned herself an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf with her victory in the “Win and You’re In” Flower Bowl.
The relative lack of pace among the six starters in the one-mile, three-furlong Flower Bowl, run for the first time at Saratoga this season after having been a fixture at the Belmont Park fall meet, proved to be of little concern for the stretch-running War Like Goddess. With regular rider Julien Leparoux aboard again, War Like Goddess raced closer to the early leader, La Signare, than she had been in any of her six previous starts while rating only six lengths off the leader for nearly a mile.
War Like Goddess, who saved ground in the long run down the backstretch, tipped out to the middle of the track while moving closer entering the stretch, joined Great Island for command an eighth of a mile from the wire, then readily ran well clear while kept under vigorous handling to the end.
Great Island raced forwardly placed, took brief command between calls in early stretch but proved no match for the winner while holding off her stablemate My Sister Nat by a nose to finish second. It was 6 3/4 lengths farther back to Lovely Lucky, who finished fourth, followed by American Bridge and the weary La Signare.
The Flower Bowl was the fourth win in a row for War Like Goddess, who won three graded stakes after suffering the only defeat of her career when opening her 2021 campaign with a wide-running fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 The Very One this winter at Gulfstream Park. Trained by Bill Mott for owner George Kirkorian, the 4-year-old daughter of English Channel covered the distance in 2:13.07 over the firm ground and paid $2.80. War Like Goddess got a 100 Beyer Speed Figure.
Mott said about the only concern he had during the race was getting a clear view of his filly from his box in the grandstand as the field approached the stretch.
“When they were coming out of the turn the pillar from the grandstand was in the way and I didn’t know if she was still on the inside or outside,” Mott said with a laugh. “By the time I could see, she had made her way to the outside and was clear. She’s won on the inside and outside before, all she really seems to need is a clear run.”
Mott said there was a “good possibility” War Like Goddess could just train up to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.
“She runs well fresh,” Mott said. “We’ll talk about it.”