by Jeff Apel

Trainer Todd Pletcher wants to see a repeat performance from multiple Grade 1 winner Wait a While in the $600,000 Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes (G1) on Saturday at Belmont Park.

A 2006 Eclipse Award winner as champion three-year-old filly, Wait a While enters off a 2 1/4-length win in the Ballston Spa Handicap (G2) on August 23 at Saratoga Race Course. Last year, the Maria’s Mon filly captured the American Oaks Invitational (G1) and Yellow Ribbon (G1) Stakes, both run at the Flower Bowl distance of 1 1/4 miles.

“She proved in her last race she’s in top form,” Pletcher said. “She won the American Oaks and the Yellow Ribbon going a mile and a quarter, so the distance is no problem.”

Wait a While will face a field of eight fillies and mares in the Flower Bowl, a key prep for the $2-million Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) on October 27 at Monmouth Park. The field also includes Grade 1 winners My Typhoon, Alexander Tango (Ire), and Royal Highness (Ger), Grade 2 winner Masseuse, and Grade 3 winner Rosinka (Ire), a winner of four straight starts for trainer Graham Motion.

Arindel Farm’s Wait a While opened her season by winning the Honey Fox Handicap (G3) on March 4 at Gulfstream Park. The gray or roan filly finished second to My Typhoon in the Just a Game Stakes (G2) on June 9 at Belmont Park prior to winning the Ballston Spa.

A forecast calling for rain could present a new challenge to Wait a While, who has made seven of her eight career turf starts on firm turf.

“The way the turf is now is perfect,” Pletcher said. “It’s been really firm, so hopefully, it can take some water and stay firm even if it rains.”

Irish Group 3 winner Alexander Tango won the Garden City Stakes (G1) on September 8 at Belmont in her North American debut for trainer Tommy Stack. Racing in ninth in a field of ten in the Garden City through six furlongs in 1:14.52, Alexander Tango rallied five wide and overtook four foes with an explosive stretch run.

“She’s done well since the Garden City,” said David Grogan, Alexander Tango’s exercise rider. “Things didn’t really go how we thought they would in the Garden City. The pace was much slower than we expected and she was farther back than we thought she’d be. That didn’t really bother her, but she showed a turn of foot I’ve never seen from her before.”

Rene Douglas rides Royal Highness, the winner of the Beverly D. Stakes (G1) on August 11 at Arlington Park in her previous start. The Monsun mare, trained by Christophe Clement, previously finished second, a neck behind Rosinka, in the Robert G. Dick Memorial Breeders’ Cup Handicap on July 14 at Delaware Park.

“The turf was soft in the Beverly D., so we wanted to make sure to take her back and make one run,” Clement said. “She’s a very easy horse to ride.”

Jeff Apel is a Thoroughbred Times assistant daily news editor

The field, in post-position order with (sire), jockey, weight and trainer:

1. Lahudood [GB] (Singspiel [Ire]), Alan Garcia, 119, Kiaran McLaughlin;

2. Hostess (Chester House), Channing Hill, 119, H. James Bond;

3. Masseuse (Dynaformer), Javier Castellano, 121, James Toner;

4. Alexander Tango [Ire] (Danehill Dancer [Ire]), Shaun Bridgmohan, 119, Tommy Stack;

5. My Typhoon [Ire] (Giant's Causeway), Eddie Castro, 123, Bill Mott;

6. Wait a While (Maria's Mon), Garrett Gomez, 121, Todd Pletcher;

7. Rosinka [Ire] (Soviet Star), Jeremy Rose, 119, Graham Motion;

8. Royal Highness [Ger] (Monsun [Ger]), Rene Douglas, 123, Christophe Clement; and

9. Argentina [Ire] (Sadler's Wells), Kent Desormeaux, 119, Robert Frankel.