Steve Feiger’s Fab Flowers drew off to a 2 3/4-length debut win in Sunday’s
5TH
race at Arlington Park, becoming the first winner sired by multiple Grade 2
victor Lewis Michael. Trained by Joel Berndt and ridden by Sebastian Madrid, the
5-1 chance pressed the early leader before asserting herself in the stretch. Fab
Flowers took :53 4/5 to complete 4 1/2 furlongs on the Polytrack.
Bred by F & F Investments in Illinois, Fab Flowers is out of the Dixieland
Band mare J. D. Flowers, making her a three-quarter sister to multiple Grade 1
queen Exotic Wood. The latter was by Rahy, while Fab Flowers is by Rahy’s son
Lewis Michael. The bay filly was available for a $40,000 maiden claiming tag on
Sunday.
Lewis Michael was versatile with respect to both distance and surface, but
excelled on Polytrack. In addition to setting a new seven-furlong track record
at Del Mar when landing the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien Handicap in 1:21, he equaled
Arlington’s track record of 1:55 for 1 3/16 miles when romping in the Grade 2
Washington Park Handicap.
A full brother to champion two-year-old filly Dreaming of Anna, Lewis Michael
also scored in the Grand Canyon Handicap on turf as a juvenile. He placed in a
total of six stakes over his career — the Grade 2 Peter Pan and St Louis Derby
on dirt, the grassy Grade 3 Tropical Park Derby, and on Polytrack, the Grade 2
Commonwealth Stakes, Grade 3 Perryville Stakes and Grade 3 Hanshin Cup.
Lewis Michael, who retired with $811,714 in earnings from his 23-7-6-2 line,
is also a half-brother to multiple Grade 2 winner Justenuffhumor. They were
produced by multiple stakes heroine and Grade 3-placed Justenuffheart, by Broad
Brush.
Justenuffheart is herself a half-sister to champion turf horse Kitten’s Joy,
now a successful young sire, and to multiple Grade 1 heroine and $1.9-million
earner Precious Kitten.
Lewis Michael stands at Three Chimneys, for so long the home of his deceased
sire Rahy. The nine-year-old stallion hopes to follow in his hoofsteps at the
Midway, Kentucky, farm, where his fee is set at $3,000, stands and nurses.