Saturday, September 29, 2012

Nahrain wins photo finish in Flower Bowl

European shipper Nahrain out-finished a trio of fillies in the $600,000 Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes (gr. I) this afternoon at Belmont Park, kicking clear late under John Velazquez to win by a half-length.

Sent off at odds of 5-1, the daughter of Selkirk was content to race toward the rear of the field as Hit It Rich rattled off slow fractions of :25.33 and :51.73 while being tracked by Halo Dolly. Bizzy Caroline, Hessonite, and Zagora were also racing fairly close to the lead, while Nahrain, Dream Peace, and I'm A Dreamer comprised the trailing group.

Hit It Rich and Halo Dolly continued to show the way until they quarter pole, where they were quickly surrounded and surpassed by numerous rallying rivals. Zagora was the first to take command, drawing clear to lead by 1 1/2 lengths passing the eighth pole, but Nahrain was charging hard on the outside and got up in the final fifty yards or so to win the race in 2:05.56 seconds.

Zagora held off Dream Peace by a nose to finish second, while I'm A Dreamer rallied up the fence to secure the final spot in the superfecta. Hessonite, Bizzy Caroline, Hit It Rich, and Halo Dolly completed the order of finish.

The winner is owned by Darley Stable and trained by Roger Varian.

-Keelerman

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