Boisterous Holds Class Edge in Bowling Green

Boisterous, a seven-time graded stakes winner for the Phipps Stable and now racing for Gary Barber, headlines a field of seven for Belmont Park's $200,000 Bowling Green Handicap (gr. IIT) July 12. The Bowling Green, race nine on the card, goes at 1 1/2 miles over the Widener Turf Course.

Boisterous, a 7-year-old by Distorted Humor  —Emanating, by Cox's Ridge, was consigned to the Keeneland November sale last November by Claiborne Farm, agent, and was purchased by bloodstock agent Steven W. Young for $350,000. Barber is riding a hot streak of late, having won the July 6 Queen's Plate at Woodbine with the 3-year-old filly Lexie Lou.

Boisterous has made four starts this year under Barber's hot pink silks for trainer Todd Pletcher, posting a win over conditioned allowance company going nine furlongs on the turf at Keeneland in April and running third behind Wise Dan and Seek Again in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (gr. IT) on the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) undercard.

In all, he's posted a 12-3-4 mark from 32 starts and has earned $1,413,170. He was third in last year's Bowling Green after winning the grade I Man o' War Stakes mid-July. Last year's Bowling Green was run in early September after the Saratoga meet.

Boisterious is not the highweight in the field, however. That distinction goes to Yvonne Jacques' Grandeur, a 5-year-old Irish-bred gelding who will be making his third start in the U.S. and carrying 122 pounds.

A two-time grade II winner in 2012 in Southern California, the son of Verglas—Misskinta, by Desert Sun, won two of three starts on an all-weather surface in England this winter then shipped to New York where he ran third in the May 11 Man o' War and fourth in the Knob Creek Manhattan Stakes (gr. IT) on Belmont Stakes day. In his first foray to the U.S. in 2012 he won the Twilight Derby (gr. IIT) at Santa Anita Park on the Breeders' Cup undercard in 2012, then ran second in the Hollywood Derby (gr. IT) prior to taking the Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes (gr. IIT) as the 8-5 favorite at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Reflecting (Elusive Quality  —Daydreaming, by A.P. Indy) gives Phipps Stable a shot at topping their sales horse last year. Last time out the homebred rallied to run a gallant third, beaten a length, in the two-mile Belmont Gold Cup. Joel Rosario was aboard that day, but he'll be piloting Grandeur in the Bowling Green. Irad Ortiz Jr. has been given the mount by Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

John and Sarah Kelly's Chamois, third in the Dixie Stakes (gr. IIT) at Pimlico Race Course but a dull 10th in the Manhattan seeks to turn things around in the Bowling Green, as does Hangover Kid, second in the Monmouth Stakes (gr. IIT) in New Jersey, and Sky Blazer, unplaced in a pair of stakes efforts the last two times out.