Longshot Idea Generation went wire-to-wire to win the Flower Bowl Stakes, a Breeders Cup "win and youre in" race at Saratoga. (Chelsea Durand/NYRA)
At odds of 31-1 in the $500,000 Grade 2 Flower Bowl Stakes that attracted some of the best distance turf fillies and mares to Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, Aug. 31, the tote board said Idea Generation was a rabbit for trainer Chad Brown's other starter in the race, 2-1 shot McKulick.
Brown had a different take as he gave Idea Generation's jockey Florent Geroux instructions prior to the 1 3/8-mile race.
"You're here to set the pace. You're also here to win," Brown told him. "Try to do both."
Under the wire the first time in the three-turn stakes on a rainy, wet turf course, Geroux realized he was not on a hopeless rabbit.
"I knew right away," Geroux said when asked about when he thought he could steal the race. "When I looked at the board first time around and I saw (a :26.08 first quarter mile) and we were six or seven lengths ahead. I gave her another push to the three-eighths pole and the race was pretty much over after that."
Idea Generation clicked off soft fractions of 1:18.20 for six furlongs and 1:43.58 for a mile while maintaining a lengthy lead on the yielding inner turf course. Still ahead by four lengths in mid-stretch, Idea Generation held off a late charge by War Like Goddess to take the Flower Bowl by 1 1/2 lengths for her initial career stakes win.
The Flower Bowl was a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series "win and you're in" event for the Nov. 2 Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar, but Brown was not jumping at the possibility of sending Idea Generation west to face a star-studded international field on firm turf.
"It seems like a reach, she had her own way today," Brown said. "I'm not going to get ahead of myself there. We'll see how she's doing. She's unlikely to have soft turf at Del Mar, we know that. We'll just enjoy this win and plan our future from here. When she gets around three turns on soft turf, she has a place in the barn for sure."
The win was the second in seven career starts for Idea Generation. The final time was 2:18.97. Idea Generation paid $64.50 to win.
Favorite War Like Goddess rallied from sixth to second, two lengths ahead of Idea Generation's stablemate McKulick in third.
Brown won the Flower Bowl for the eighth time in his career. He finished the day with 38 wins, which was enough to clinch a fourth straight Spa training title and seventh Saratoga training title overall.
