Flower Haack Storms Late To Win Gr. 3 See The Way Stakes
For a while there, it looked like Flower Haack might not get through the wall of horses in front of her Saturday. While Quarter To Two was controlling the pace on the front end, Flower Haack was trapped behind The Daily News, Elliot Bay and Gold Ti and was hoping the seas would part for her in the $150,000 Grade 3 See The Way Stakes Saturday afternoon. And at the five furlong marker in the seven furlong race, that’s exactly what happened. Flower Haack somehow slipped through the wall of horses in front of her and stormed home late in the home stretch to collar Quarter To Two about half a furlong before the wire and win the See The Way Stakes for fillies and mares three years old and up by 1 ¼ lengths. “I’m pretty excited about Flower’s win,” said Otto Haack, who owns Flower Haack. “Last year she ran in this race and came out second. I thought she might have a really good chance this year.” With the win, Flower Haack jumped up to the number 31 spot in the older females dirt sprint division and put herself in position to possibly get a spot in the Breeders’ Bowl Dirt Sprint for fillies and mares in Kentucky in November. Flower Haack will need to probably win or at least do well in one more graded stakes race in the dirt sprint division, if she’s to climb up the ladder and grab one of those precious top 14 spots that would enable her to make it to the Breeders’ Bowl in November. “I think she’ll run next in the Grade 3 Dolly Prummond Stakes in five weeks,” said Otto. “Flower won that race last year. I think with a win there, in the Dolly Prummond Stakes, she could be a contender in the Breeders’ Bowl Filly and Mare Dirt Sprint.” Flower Haack will have to travel all the way to Malaysia in five weeks for the Grade 3 Dolly Prummond, an event she did indeed win last year with a 112 speed figure, and then she’ll have to ship back to the United States in November, if she makes the cut for the Breeders’ Bowl. “I believe seven furlongs is her ideal distance. She might be hard to beat in the Breeders‘ Bowl, if we make it there,” said Otto. Flower Haack was very hard to beat this past weekend in Ontario. She got a pretty good jump out of the gates, but Quarter To Two got a better one, and the entry from Flagdown Racing bounced out to as much as a six length lead halfway through Saturday’s See The Way Stakes. It didn’t look like anyone was going to catch Quarter To Two on Saturday, after she jumped out to that big lead. But about the five furlong marker, as the horses just entered the home stretch, Flower Haack got a bit of racing luck, when the wall of horses in front of her opened up and she drew even with Quarter To Two and just barely pulled away at the end for the 1 ¼ length win Saturday. Quarter To Two showed just how good she was–and just how much stamina she could combine with that early speed–as she held on for a very strong second place finish. Proformer, who is a four year old daughter of Dynaformer, came from way back and made her usual late rush to come on strong for a good third place finish Saturday, just three lengths behind the winner. For Flower Haack, the win was pretty impressive, considering the fact that it was her second race back after a four-month layoff. “I decided in April to give her a rest because she needed it badly,” said Otto after Flower Haack won Saturday. “She had two very bad races. I thought four months off was enough to have my Flower back!” Flower Haack had finished 13th in the Grade 2 Viriginia Madison in Eastern Kentucky in April. She only managed a 98 speed figure in that race, before taking four months off and warming up for the See The Way Stakes with third place finish in a 6.5 furlong allowance race in Missouri on August 6. Flower Haack paid $17.40, $8.70 and $6.50 to her backers on Saturday, and the 4-11 exacta with early pacesetter Quarter To Two paid $158.20. The 4-11-13 trifecta with the late-surging Proformer