Fort George brings Dubai form to Saratoga's Bowling Green

Fort George brings a foreign-profile twist to Saturday’s Grade 2 Bowling Green at Saratoga Race Course, and the 4-year-old gelding arrives with enough Dubai form to make his U.S. debut a serious summer marker. Owned by Mrs. Fitriani Hay and trained by Ed Walker, the Territories colt won the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes at Meydan on January 30 in 2:01.29, a performance that has him facing not just a new track, but a different kind of test at 11 furlongs on Saratoga’s inner turf.

The Bowling Green, Race 10 on the NYRA program, carries a $250,000 purse and has long served as a Saratoga staying-turf feature. Inaugurated in 1958 at Belmont Park, it now sits squarely in the middle of the meet’s late-summer stakes picture, with the Sword Dancer looming as the major 1 1/2-mile goal for horses that emerge with momentum. Far Bridge used the Bowling Green as a springboard last year, winning the 2025 renewal before taking the Sword Dancer later in the meet.

That is the lane Fort George is trying to enter. NYRA’s advance lists Carson’s Run among the runners, along with other established American turf horses such as Ole Crazy Bone, and that gives the race a clearer read on whether Fort George’s Meydan credentials travel. At Dubai, he was not simply winning in isolation; he was holding his own against black-type company and proving he could stretch his stamina on good turf against runners with international quality.

Walker has said Fort George settled well after arriving in Saratoga on June 26, a useful sign for a horse whose resume already reflects constant movement between England and Dubai. He described the gelding as very tough and genuine, while also noting that Fort George is still filling out and improving. That blend of proven class and unfinished development is what makes the Bowling Green more than a first American start.

If Fort George translates that Dubai Millennium effort to Saratoga’s tighter turns and more demanding pace dynamics, he could move immediately into the center of the division and strengthen the international presence in the American summer turf ranks. If he does more than that, the Bowling Green could become the first stop in a far more ambitious Saratoga campaign.