When this year's $500,000 Flower Bowl Stakes (G2T) closes out the Sept. 26 card at Belmont Park, it will mark a return to a more familiar setting for the race, both in terms of date and host track.
Ahead of the 2021 edition of the Flower Bowl, the turf race for fillies and mares was moved from its traditional date in late September or early October at Belmont Park to late August or early September at Saratoga Race Course. The initial move was made for better spacing ahead of the Breeders' Cup and then Belmont was closed for renovations, leaving Saratoga as the best option.
The Flower Bowl stayed at Saratoga for five editions of the race, where it was contested at 1 3/8 miles on the inner turf. This year it returns to its traditional 1 1/4-mile distance on the Belmont inner turf.
As a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In race, the Flower Bowl will award a fees-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T), which this year will be contested at 1 3/16 miles on the Keeneland turf. The distance of the Filly and Mare Turf varies based on track configuration and it had been contested at 1 3/8 miles the past two years when Del Mar hosted the World Championships.
Of the five Flower Bowl winners at Saratoga, only three raced in the Filly and Mare Turf with 2021 winner War Like Goddess earning the best placing in the latter race—finishing third. Of the five Filly and Mare Turf winners during those years, none of them prepped in the Flower Bowl, with four of the five winners shipping in from overseas for their Breeders' Cup start.
Flower Bowl winners have gone on to win the Filly and Mare Turf in their next start three times. In 1999, Soaring Softly followed her Flower Bowl victory with a three-quarter-length score in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park, the first year the race was offered as part of the World Championships. Since then, two more Flower Bowl winners went on to win the Filly and Mare Turf in their next starts: Lahudood in 2007 and Stephanie's Kitten in 2015.
Stephanie's Kitten won the 2014 and 2015 editions of the Flower Bowl. In 2014, she went on to finish second to stablemate Dayatthespa in the Filly and Mare Turf, completing the exacta for trainer Chad Brown in the race contested that year at Santa Anita Park. With the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland in 2015, Stephanie's Kitten rallied from 10th early to post a clear victory in the Filly and Mare Turf.
Stephanie's Kitten won the 2014 edition of the Flower Bowl on its traditional course, the inner turf at Belmont. A year later, she won the race on the soft going on the outer turf, where the race was moved for better footing. Four weeks later, she captured the Filly and Mare Turf.
Brown will send out the 8-5 morning-line favorite in this year's edition of the Flower Bowl in Michael Caruso and Michael Dubb's Kathynmarissa, who enters off a half-length victory in the Diana Stakes (G1T) July 18 on yielding turf at Saratoga. She has two wins and a third in three starts this season, all graded stakes.
Kathynmarissa opened the year by upsetting last year's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner, Gezora, in the Modesty Stakes (G3T) May 1 on the Churchill Downs turf. Brown sent out Gezora to a runner-up finish in what was her first race since the 2025 Breeders' Cup. After that race, owner Peter Brant removed Gezora from Brown and sent her to Bill Mott.
Gezora will start for the latter in the Flower Bowl, still looking for her first win of the season. A turnaround in form would be well timed with the Breeders' Cup five weeks after the Flower Bowl.
Also in Saturday's Belmont test, Brown will send out Diana fourth-place finisher Cathedral, who will break from the outside in the expected field of 11. Amo Racing USA's Cathedral finished fourth in last year's Filly and Mare Turf.
