Wilgerbosdrift’s exciting resident stallion Flower Alley has been enjoying a purple patch with his runners of late, and the 2005 G1 Travers Stakes winner was at it again on Monday.
This time, it was Flower Alley’s 3yo daughter Distinctive Flower who came to the fore, with a dazzling victory at Thistledown.
Making just her second racecourse appearance, Distinctive Flower, fifth on her only previous racetrack outing, put daylight between herself and her rivals when romping to a 10.25 length maiden win!
Also broodmare sire of Japanese star and G1 winner Lucky Lilac (third in Sunday’s G1 Yushun Himba-the Japanese Oaks), Flower Alley was also responsible for Sunday’s US winner Flower Fashion. The latter, who is now trained by Christope Clement, was making just her third US outing when she landed an allowance optional claiming race at Belmont Park over the weekend. The four-year-old had shown smart form in France, where Flower Fashion had finished second in the Listed Prix Volterra.
Sire of G1 winners I’ll Have Another, Lilacs And Lace, Bullards Alley and Lukes Alley, Flower Alley enjoyed big race success earlier this year when his son Nessy captured the G3 San Juan Capistrano Stakes at Santa Anita.
A son of champion US sire Distorted Humor, and from the same family as legendary sire Lyphard, Flower Alley proved popular at the 2018 Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale where members of his first South African crop fetched up to R1.5 million.