War Like Goddess Full Of Run, Wins Flower Bowl For Fun

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – George Krikorian’s War Like Goddess was full of run as she tipped out three-wide for the stretch drive, then kicked into gear and won for fun in Saturday’s $600,000 Flower Bowl Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.

The Flower Bowl is a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” event, with War Like Goddess receiving an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar this November.

The 4/5 top choice on the morning line, War Like Goddess was bet down to 2/5 favoritism by the time she broke from post 3 under Julien Leparoux, who settled her into a ground-saving mid-pack trip.

La Signare set the pace as expected, posting fractions of :24.71, :48.83, 1:13.66, and 1:37.40 through the opening mile as Great Island and jockey Joel Rosario gave closest watch.

Though La Signare opened up on the field for first half of the race, that gap collapsed as the far turn neared for the second time and Great Island tipped off the rail to take first run at the leader.

Leparoux gave War Like Goddess the green light to follow and she responded alertly while being steered out three-wide near the top of the stretch.

The moment she changed leads, War Like Goddess was gone. The Bill Mott trainee shot swiftly to the lead with a furlong to go before running away to win the 1 3/8-mile firm inner turf route by 2 1/4 lengths in 2:13.07.

“She’s a classy filly,” Leparoux said. “You can do whatever you want and she’ll still give you that punch in the end. It’s nice. It’s a sign of the good ones, for sure. Bill Mott knows how to get them to these Grade 1s. They took their time with her and it has paid off.”

Great Island saved second by a nose over fellow Chad Brown trainee My Sister Nat.

“She was closing really nicely,” Rosario said. “The other horse had a better kick than I did. She ran well. I thought for a second we were getting there. She seems fine with the distance. The winner was much better.”

Lovely Lucky, American Bridge (a European import who will now remain stateside with Brown), and La Signare completed the order of finish. Coastana scratched.

War Like Goddess’ win was her sixth in 7 career starts and came in her debut at the Grade 1 level. The 4-year-old English Channel filly, purchased for $20,000 as an unraced juvenile, has now earned $713,684 and will likely train up to the World Championships on November 5 and 6.

“We’ll talk about that, but there’s a good possibility of that,” Mott said. “She seems to run pretty well fresh, so maybe that’s what we’ll do.”

War Like Goddess returned $2.80 to win, $2.60 to place, and $2.10 to show. Great Island brought back $4.90 to place and $3.40 to show. My Sister Nat paid $2.80 to show.