A full field of fillies entered for Saturday’s Floral Park at Belmont Park
A full field of fillies entered for Saturday’s Floral Park at Belmont Park
By the NY Hot List Staff // Thursday, October 15
Thirteen fillies and mares were entered in the $80,000 Floral Park which is scheduled to be run at six-furlongs on the Widener turf course at Belmont Park on Saturday.
The 3-1 morning line favorite is the graded stakes winner Mitchell Road who is trained by Bill Mott. The 5-year-old mare was last seen in the Ladies Turf (G3) at Kentucky Downs when she missed the win by a neck. In the Floral Park she will run in a turf sprint for the first time.
Trainer Christophe Clement will bring European stakes winner Rose Flower back from a June layoff.
“Everything is good and she’s training forwardly,” Clement said. “I’ve been waiting to race her for quite a while. There’s been no problems going forward.”
The late running filly will get the services of the top turf sprint jockey Joel Rosario. Weather reports indicate a significant chance of rain on Friday.
“She’s fine on soft turf but she can run on anything, firm or soft,” Clement said. “She’s mostly a come-from-behind-type filly, but the main thing is that she hasn’t run for a while, so we want to get her going.”
I’llhandalthecash, who gets his name from trainer Ray Handal, will return to Belmont where he ran the best race of his career in the License Fee back on July 1 after having a difficult time recently at Kentucky Downs in a Grade 3.
“She’s doing good; she didn’t do a whole lot of running last time,” Handal said. “I think we got shuffled back a bit early and we weren’t in the spot we wanted to be in and couldn’t do much about it. She got stuck on the inside and the track that day wasn’t good anywhere, but it was at its absolute worst at the rail. It was like a bog. So, I just treaded lightly and I penciled this spot in and she came out of it really well and she’s given me all the signs that she’s ready to get back at it.”
Here are the Hot List picks for the Floral Park:
The $80,000 Floral Park, Belmont Park, Saturday, Race 9.
(8) Lead Guitar returned to the barn of George Weaver over the summer with a speedy front running second-level allowance victory in a turf sprint at Belmont that was run in a fast time and earned her a career best speed figure. Luis Saez opts to stay on board with a chance to get her first stakes win using that early speed. (1) Bohemian Bourbon gets some class relief in this field dropping out of two graded stakes races that include a third in the Royal North (G2) at Woodbine by less than a length. Last time she caught a soft turf course that was not to her liking. (3) I’llhandalthecash ran her career best race three back when she won the License Fee at Belmont Park on her favorite turf course. Last time, she got stuck on the rail on soft grass at Kentucky Downs in a Grade 3 and her form looks a bit muddied up. (9) Rose Flower will return from a June layoff for the team of Christophe Clement and Joel Rosario. This 4-year-old filly came to the Clement barn with two wins in France and showed an affinity for softer grass courses at Belmont and Aqueduct. Her late running style fits in this six-furlong race.
The Floral Park will be leg 2 of Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 which features races from Belmont and Keeneland. Analysis of the other New York Hot List races and the Special Saturday Pick 3 are available free of charge at this website.