Boisterous a strong favorite in Bowling Green

Boisterous, a disappointing eighth as the 9-5 favorite in last month's Sword

Dancer Invitational, figures to be an even stronger favorite in Saturday's Grade

2 $250,000

Bowling

Green Handicap at Belmont Park.

Run over 1 1/4 miles on the inner turf, the Bowling Green is the feature on

opening day of Belmont's Fall Championship Meet, which runs through October 27.

Although a disappointment in the 1 1/2-mile Sword Dancer, Boisterous's form

earlier in the summer had been stellar. Defeating eventual United Nations and

Sword Dancer winner Big Blue Kitten in the nine-furlong Monmouth on June 9, the

Phipps Stable star returned the following month to garner his first top-level

win in the 1 3/8-mile Man o' War over Belmont's inner turf.

The Bowling Green will prove a tricky handicapping exercise as the race, on

paper, is completely void of pace. Hyper, who stalked the pace en route to

victory in the 1 5/8-mile John's Call at Saratoga in late July, is a potential

early factor, as is former Chilean Horse of the Year Quick Casablanca, who came

home third in the John's Call after clipping heels with a rival early on.

London Lane, who upset the Colonial Turf Cup at odds of 50-1 in June, was

subsequently sixth in the Sword Dancer after making a middle move to the lead.

The Bowling Green field is completed by Grade 1-placed Finnegans Wake, fourth

in the Arlington Million, Man o' War, and Manhattan in his last three, and

Farhaan, who returned from a one-year layoff to take his U.S. debut against

second-level allowance foes at Saratoga on August 15.

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