Consistent Fourstar Crook is Flower Bowl Centerpiece

After trading figurative punches with stablemate and female turf division leader Sistercharlie in some of the country's top grass races this year, Fourstar Crook gets her turn alone on the marquee Oct. 7 in the $500,000 Flower Bowl Stakes (G1T) at Belmont Park.

In her past three starts, Fourstar Crook finished second by a half-length to Sistercharlie in the Beverly D. Stakes (G1T) at Arlington International Racecourse, edged her stablemate by a head in the New York Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G2T) at Belmont, and took runner-up honors behind her in the Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) in the spring at Keeneland. Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown conditions both horses.

Fourstar Crook returns to Belmont in search of her first grade 1 victory in the Flower Bowl, a 1 1/4-mile race for fillies and mares on the inner turf. The Flower Bowl is a Breeders' Cup Challenge race, offering "Win and You're In" conditions to the Nov. 3 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T) at Churchill Downs.

Fourstar Crook has placed in all three top-level tests she's entered for Michael Dubb, Bethlehem Stables, and Gary Aisquith. Besides her two runner-up finishes to Sistercharlie, the 6-year-old New York-bred daughter of Freud  finished third in last year's E. P. Taylor Stakes (G1T) at Woodbine. 

Fourstar Crook enters Sunday's race on a pattern—she has won every other race in her past eight starts dating to July 4, 2017. Good news for her connections is that if the trend continues, the Flower Bowl will fall in the win column. But better news is that Fourstar Crook has always been consistent; in those starts she didn't win during the current stretch—all stakes—she finished second or third. 

From October 2015 through July 4 last year, Fourstar Crook won eight straight races, beginning with a maiden win at Belmont and concluding with her first graded stakes score in last year's Dr. James Penny Memorial Stakes (G3T) at Parx Racing.

It's a rare day Brown doesn't have more than one starter in a turf race for females, which means Fourstar Crook will have to contend with a talented stablemate. Brown has bookended the field, as Fourstar Crook will start from the outside in the expected field of seven and Martin Schwartz's Onthemoonagain will break at the hedge. A daughter of Cape Cross, Onthemoonagain enters the Flower Bowl off a fourth-place finish in the Sept. 1 Glens Falls Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga Race Course.

Godolphin Racing's Lady Montdore, the frontrunning winner of the Glens Falls, will start next to Onthemoonagain. The daughter of Medaglia d'Oro  picked up her second win in as many North American starts in the Glens Falls and secured her first group or graded stakes win. 

Trainer Tom Albertrani said Lady Montdare has flourished since arriving in New York this year after starting her career with five starts in France in 2016-2017.

"When I first got her, there wasn't too much to her," Albertrani said. "She's got a light frame and was just kind of light in general, but as I started to train her more and more, she started to get my attention. We got to really liking her as we got closer to starting her. Even before she ran the first time, I really thought she would run well. I think it just took some time for her to really mature.

"We were very lucky with the way she came out of her first race and were able to go on to win the Glens Falls, where she was impressive again," he added. "In her first race, Joe (Bravo) rode her and she rated kindly for him through the whole race. Last time, Joe had to go to Kentucky, so Manny (Franco) picked up the mount. He just kind of inherited the lead with her, and she just galloped around. It's nice to have that tactical speed, where, with a horse like Sadler's Joy, you've got to worry about him coming from 15 lengths back. It's good that she's got the kind of speed where she can place herself accordingly."

Entries: Flower Bowl S. (G1T)

Belmont Park, Sunday, October 07, 2018, Race 8

• Grade I
• 1 1/4m
• Inner turf
• $500,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 5:18 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Onthemoonagain (FR)	Javier Castellano	119	Chad C. Brown	9/2
2	2Lady Montdore (KY)	Manuel Franco	121	Thomas Albertrani	7/2
3	3Holy Helena (ON)	Junior Alvarado	121	James A. Jerkens	3/1
4	4Tricky Escape (KY)	Christopher P. DeCarlo	119	Lynn A. Ashby	8/1
5	5Danceland (KY)	John R. Velazquez	119	Claude R. McGaughey III	12/1
6	6Feeling Bossy (NY)	David Cohen	119	Jason Servis	30/1
7	7Fourstar Crook (NY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	121	Chad C. Brown	7/5