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Zhukova vs. Grand Jete in Belmont’s Flower Bowl
Zhukova Seeks Start in Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf
Zhukova, last year’s winner of the G1 Man O’War over a yielding Belmont Park inner turf course, returns to face older fillies and mares in the G1 $500,000 Flower Bowl Invitational going 1 1/4 miles for trainer Dermot Weld and jockey Patrick Smullen.
The Flower Bowl is one of four Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” events on this final weekend of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series that began in January when South African runner Legal Eagle won the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate at Kenilworth and a trip in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
If successful this weekend, Zhukova will join a plethora of contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and the $2 million prize. The list of contenders includes challenge winners Avenge, Birdie Gold, Dacita, Hydrangea, and Rhododendronor.
Irish bred Zhukova comes in to the Flower Bowl on a two-race losing streak in her home country after winning the Man O’War by six lengths. As in the Man O’War, she’ll be running with the addition of Lasix. But this time around the Belmont inner, she won’t find the ground yielding under her as she tries to go the distance on or near the lead.
Grand Jete seeks clean trip to Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf
It’s probably a good idea to see today’s Flower Bowl as a rematch of the G1 Beverly D between stablemates Dacita, who crossed the wire first, and her stablemate Grand Jete who had anything but a clean trip and still managed to finish in a dead-heat for the place.
The two Chad Brown trainees will face off in their final prep for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf with both looking to stamp themselves the superior entry from the Brown barn for the BC F&M Turf.
Grand Jete, who while technically not a Challenge Race winner yet, has taken the states by storm since arriving in the U.S. in April of this year. In her first race stateside, she won a low-level allowance at Keeneland going 1 mile while getting Lasix for the first time. She’s since won back to back races including a nice win over the Belmont inner one race back before the Beverly D debacle. She’ll have a new rider in Javier Castellano and will go as the favorite while adding distance. But judging by the replay of the Beverly D, she’s definitely the one to beat here.
