SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - They couldn’t catch the rabbit.
Idea Generation, put into the Grade 2 Flower Bowl to ensure an honest pace for her stablemate McKulick, got loose on the lead under Florent Geroux, set slow fractions over a Saratoga turf course turned yielding due to midday rains, and held off a late run from War Like Goddess to upset the Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths.
It was two lengths back to McKulick, who was a head better than Eternal Hope. Verbier, Millie Girl and Parnac, last year’s Flower Bowl winner, completed the order of finish. La Mehana and the two main-track-only entrants were scratched.
Sent off as the longest shot on the board at 31-1, Idea Generation returned $64.50 to win.
Brown has put in pacemakers in marathon turf races before and they’ve performed well. Royalty Interest beat McKulick in the Grade 3 Sheepshead Bay at Aqueduct on May 3. Last fall, in the Grade 3 Waya at Aqueduct, Idea Generation set the pace before being run down by McKulick and settling for second.
Brown said his instructions to Geroux in the paddock Saturday were the same as in the Waya.
“Listen, you’re here to set the pace, you’re also here to win, try to do both,” Brown said. “Set an honest pace, she enjoys running freely, but if you think you can win the race, by all means try and win the race. He did it. He was clear, he was setting an honest pace, he used good judgment to try and win the race for himself, too. That’s what I do with my speed horses.”
Idea Generation opened up a 5 1/2-length advantage after running an opening quarter in 26.08 seconds and Geroux was feeling quite confident immediately. Idea Generation maintained a clear advantage through splits of 51.92 seconds, 1:18.20 and 1:43.58. McKulick raced in third while War Like Goddess, the 10-time stakes winner, was stuck inside about nine lengths off the pace.
War Like Goddess, under Junior Alvarado, was able to get off the rail at the head of the lane, closed as best she could, but fell 1 1/2 lengths shy.
Idea Generation, a 4-year-old Irish-bred daughter of Dubawi owned by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables, covered the 1 3/8 miles over yielding ground in 2:18.97 and getting a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I was able to establish glacial fractions, the filly handled the ground very well,” Geroux said. “When I looked at the board first time around, it said 26-flat, from there I was six, seven lengths ahead, you [do] the math, it’s pretty hard to finish in 22-flat with this type of ground. I gave her a push at the three-eighths pole and from there the race was pretty much over.”
Bill Mott, the trainer of War Like Goddess, said Brown’s use of a pacemaker may have psyched out the competition.
“Chad’s just smarter than the rest of us, everybody took back off of him,” Mott said. “There were three other horses that could have gone with that filly and nobody went.”
Mott felt War Like Goddess may have been stuck inside too long.
“My filly, when she got out, she ran by McKulick, she ran by everybody, she was getting to the winner,” he said. “If we could have got out earlier, maybe it would have made a difference.”
Brown remarked that McKulick prefers to run covered up and wasn’t able to get that trip Saturday under Irad Oritz Jr.
“It’s not Irad’s fault that’s where she ended up,” Brown said. “She’s always run her best races covered up and producing herself in the clear late. Running the whole way with no cover, I don’t think helped her.”
Though the Flower Bowl earned Idea Generation a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 2 at Del Mar, Brown wasn’t necessarily going to point her that way.
“That seems like a little bit of a reach,” Brown said. “She had her ground and her own way today. … We’ll just enjoy this win and play our future from here. When she gets around three turns on soft turf, she has a place in the barn, that’s for sure.”
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