The toteboard, through odds of 31-1, said Klaravich Stables' Idea Generation was a rabbit in the Flower Bowl Stakes (G2T).
Her form, with only a maiden win to her credit, echoed the same thought in a $500,000 stakes that attracted some of the best distance turf fillies and mares.
But trainer Chad Brown had a different take as he gave jockey Florent Geroux some instructions prior to the 1 3/8-mile turf stakes in which Klaravich's McKulick at 2-1 was, seemingly, the trainer's best chance of reaching the winner's circle.
"You're here to set the pace. You're also here to win," Brown told him. "Try to do both."
Under the wire the first time in the three-turn stakes on wet turf, Geroux realized he was not on a hopeless rabbit.
"I knew right away," Geroux said when asked about when he thought he could steal the race. "When I looked at the board first time around and I saw (:26.08) and we were six or seven lengths ahead, you make a mental note. It's hard to finish in :22 on a course like this. I gave her another push to the three-eighths pole and the race was pretty much over after that."
Indeed it was. Still ahead by four lengths in midstretch, Idea Generation held off a late charge by favored War Like Goddess to take the Flower Bowl by 1 1/2 lengths Aug. 31 at Saratoga Race Course for her initial stakes win.
"First time around I saw she got her ears up and she's loving the ground. She was really looking comfortable," Brown said. "Even on the turn when they were getting closer, I could see (Geroux) was giving her a breather. Flo rode a great race. He gets along great with her."
The winner ($64.50) was yet another example of betting and respecting "the other Chad Brown starter," a point that was not lost on Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott after his grade 1-winning mare War Like Goddess had to settle for second after Idea Generation clicked off soft fractions of 1:18.20 for six furlongs and 1:43.58 for a mile while maintaining a lengthy lead on the yielding inner turf course.
"(War Like Goddess) ran great when she got out ... but everybody's afraid to go," Mott said. "They think Chad is in there with a rabbit, which he was, but he's done this before. There were probably three other horses that could have gone with her and nobody did.
"Chad is just smarter than everybody."
Brown, an eight-time Flower Bowl winner, got a chuckle out of Mott's remark.
"Well, it was going to benefit him, too. His horse wants pace and soft ground, too. I appreciate the compliment. But because I put one in so he didn't have to, he could have contributed half the entry fee," Brown said. "Bill's a great guy and his horse ran a super race."
The race was a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series event for the Nov. 2 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T) at Del Mar, but Brown was not jumping at the possibility of sending Idea Generation west to face a star-studded international field on firm turf.
"It seems like a reach," Brown said. "She had her own ground and way today. I'm not going to get ahead of myself there. We'll see how she's doing. She's unlikely to have soft turf at Del Mar, we know that. We'll just enjoy this win and plan our future from here. When she gets around three turns on soft turf, she has a place in the barn that's for sure."
The win was the second in seven career starts for the filly bred by Epona Bloodstock. Out of the Galileo mare Knocknagree, she was bought for $485,808 at the 2021 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and has now earned $395,150. She was a rallying fifth July 25 in a Spa allowance race in her first start since finishing second in the Oct. 7 Waya Stakes (G3T) in her final 2023 effort.
Final time was 2:18.97
George Krikorian's 6-5 favorite War Like Goddess, a daughter of English Channel who rallied from sixth in the field of seven and mounted the only serious late bid in the stretch, pushed her career earnings to $2,875,184 with a record of 21-12-3-3.
"We had a good trip. I let her settle and make one run, but the filly on the lead stole the race. It was a slow pace," said jockey Junior Alvarado, who rode War Like Goddess.
She was two lengths ahead of Idea Generation's stablemate McKulick, a 5-year-old Frankel mare who finished third on the wet course.
"I want to thank NYRA for leaving the race on the turf," Brown said about rainy conditions that prompted the shifting of the next and final race to the main track. "It was really the right decision. It's the final weekend. It's not dangerous. The course is in good shape because they managed it well all meet. If they had not made some tough decisions midmeet and taken races off the turf, we couldn't have run on it today."
Brown finished the day with 38 wins and has clinched a fourth straight Spa training title and seventh overall with two days left.
