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Champion Sistercharlie Returns To Action In Saturday’s Ballston Spa

Champion Turf Mare Sistercharlie will kick off her 2020 campaign in the 32nd running of Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Ballston Spa for older fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles over the Mellon turf at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Chad Brown and owned by Peter Brant, Sistercharlie has put together a sensational record of 15-10-3-1, including seven Grade 1 triumphs while boasting $3,662,003 in lifetime earnings. In 2018, the daughter of Myboycharlie was named Champion Turf Female after winning all four of her Grade 1 efforts that year, which registered triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. Two starts after kicking off her subsequent championship-worthy year with a victory in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, she mimicked such winning ways in the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga en route to Grade 1 scores in the Beverly D. at Arlington Park and the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs, where she beat six Grade/Group 1 winners.

Sistercharlie did not return to action until July 2019, where she notched repeat victories in the Diana and Beverly D. before winning the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park, where she joined 2010 Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Zenyatta [who won nine straight] as the only other North American-based horse to win six straight Grade 1 events. She has not raced since November, finishing third to Iridessa in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita.

“She's been training really well,” said Brown, who is targeting a sixth Ballston Spa victory. “It's only a mile and a sixteenth, which is a little shorter than the Diana was last year, but she did it a couple of years ago in the Jenny Wiley. She's been ready to run for a little while now. It's great that he [Peter Brant] decided to race her as a 6-year-old. To have a star horse like this in training is good for the entire industry, so hopefully she has another great year.”

Sistercharlie has been training forwardly for Brown into her 2020 debut, most recently working a half-mile over the Oklahoma turf course in company with Eliade, completing the distance in 50.44 seconds.

“She did well. It was a final piece of work to get her to stretch her legs. She seems ready to go,” Brown said.

Bred in Ireland by Ecurie Des Monceaux, Sistercharlie is out of the Galileo broodmare Starlet's Sister and is a half-sister to Sottsass, a dual Group 1-winner in France.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez has been aboard Sistercharlie in all 10 of her North American starts and will have the call from post 5 as he attempts his sixth Ballston Spa triumph.

Brown also will send out maiden special weight winner North Broadway for Brant. The dark bay daughter of Quality Road was a 3 ½-length winner of her second career start on May 20 over the turf at Gulfstream Park before facing winners at Monmouth Park, where she was rank in the early stages, tracked in second and faded to sixth, beaten seven lengths as the favorite.

Jockey Tyler Gaffalione will pilot North Broadway from post 3.

Trainer Christophe Clement has enjoyed a superb start to the Saratoga meet, saddling two turf stakes winners with Decorated Invader in the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame and Speaktomeofsummer in the Grade 2 Lake Placid on back-to-back days, and will seek to keep such winning ways afloat when giving Call Me Love a cutback in distance.

Owned by R Unicorn Stable, the chestnut daughter of Sea the Stars is a two-time group stakes winner in Italy and seeks her first triumph since winning the Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio on November 3. After making her North American debut with a runner-up finish to Rushing Fall going a mile and a sixteenth in the Grade 3 Beaugay on June 5 at Belmont Park, she finished fourth beaten eight lengths in the Grade 2 New York going 1 ¼ miles.

Clement will attempt a third win in the Ballston Spa having previously won with Danish [1996] and Penny's Gold [2001].

Jockey Joel Rosario will pilot Call Me Love from post 1.

Blue Heaven Farm's reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Starship Jubilee has done no wrong in her trio of starts this season and has not finished worse than third in her last 10 races. The Florida-bred bay mare will try to keep a consistent pattern intact while attempting an eighth graded stakes victory for trainer Kevin Attard.

Starship Jubilee has captured all three starts in her 7-year-old campaign, beginning at Gulfstream with scores in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf in January and the Grade 3 Suwanee River in February before taking the Grade 2 Hillsborough last out on March 7 at Tampa Bay Downs.

Attard said a planned layoff coincided with the interruption to the national stakes calendar amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were planning on giving her a break anyway. We wanted to keep her fresh for this year,” said Attard. “At one point, we were pointing toward the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April but then COVID took over and plans changed. We sent her to the farm after her race at Tampa and she had a bit of a freshening before we got her back into training.”

Starship Jubilee enters Saturday's test off a four-month layoff, but her ledger includes eight works at Woodbine topped by a bullet half-mile breeze in 47.40 on July 18 on the dirt training track.

“I think she's ready. It took her a little bit longer to come around, but she is getting a little bit older,” said Attard. “Her last few works have been good and I saw enough in her last work that I think she's ready to ship and compete.”

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano was aboard Starship Jubilee in her last out Hillsborough victory and retains the mount breaking from post 6.

Completing the field is Ballybrit Stable's Bramble Queen, who arrives off allowance optional claiming victories at Tampa Bay Downs and Delaware Park for trainer Michael Dini.

The 5-year-old Silent Name mare owns one stakes triumph, which took place in last year's Illini Princess Handicap at Hawthorne.

Jockey Jose Lezcano, who guided Laughing to a Ballston Spa score in 2013, will be aboard Bramble Queen from post 2.

Another Broad [post 4] has been entered for main track only.

The Ballston Spa is slated as Race 3 on Saturday's 11-race card, which offers a first post of 1:10 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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Christophe Clement Joins TDN Writers’ Room

There was no hotter trainer on the grounds through opening weekend at Saratoga than Christophe Clement, which is saying something considering the array of champion and Hall of Fame conditioners that occupy the backstretch of America’s premier race meet. After winning five races from 13 starters in the first four days of the stand, including a pair of graded stakes victories, Clement joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland to discuss his hot start.

Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, the French-born trainer also touched on the increased competition for imports from Europe, summer and fall plans for his leading 3-year-old turfers and how his stable bounced back from tragedy earlier in the year.

Asked about hitting the ground running following the coronavirus-forced interruption of racing in New York, Clement said, “The pandemic has been a challenge regarding the workforce and the organization of the barn, but I think we’re very lucky in New York. NYRA and Martin Panza did a great job and we’re just lucky to race here. It’s probably more challenging for the people who only have one string, but we’re lucky because we do have a string in Saratoga before the meet. That makes it much easier.”

In addition to capturing the GII Hall of Fame S. and GII Lake Placid S. last weekend at the Spa, Clement also unveiled a ‘TDN Rising Star’ with Momos (Distorted Humor) romping in the first 2-year-old race of the meet.

“I’ve got a very good group of 2-year-olds this year,” Clement said. “Momos is all about speed. He’s built like a very fast horse. He’s not big, but he’s very well balanced. My only instruction to [Manny] Franco was, ‘We know the horse is very fast, don’t make it too complicated.’ He gave a very good ride and he was always in control. That’s pretty exciting.”

Clement’s operation is likely a sentimental favorite for many in the industry this year after dealing with the devastation of losing 10 horses in a trailer fire on the New Jersey Turnpike last month. Speaking candidly about how to cope with that kind of loss, Clement said simply, you can’t.

“I don’t think you cope with that,” he said. “That phone call, I think it was 3:45 or 4:00 in the morning from the state trooper, it’s the worst of the worst. I’m lucky in a way because I train for amazing owners, so in a way they made it easy on me. But no, nobody can cope with that. That’s the worst.”

Elsewhere on the show, the writers gave their takeaways from the rest of the weekend’s big racing including the GI Haskell S., discussed the temporary closure of Del Mar and the increasing unlikelihood of fans in the stands for the GI Kentucky Derby. Then, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, they used the return of Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) as an opportunity to look back on whether anything has changed with racing’s drug problems in the four-plus months since the bombshell FBI indictments. Click here to listen to the podcast and click here to watch it on Vimeo.

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Cross Border Much The Best In Wedensday’s Lubash At Saratoga

Three Diamonds Farm's Cross Border supported his heavy favoritism and kept a perfect record at Saratoga intact with a 6 ¼-length triumph in the inaugural running of the $85,000 Lubash on Wednesday over the Mellon turf at Saratoga Race Course.

The Mike Maker-trained dark bay son of English Channel arrived at the 1 1/16-mile event for New York-breds off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Manhattan on July 4 at Belmont Park, where he finished a length behind Instilled Regard. Wednesday's race was his first start against his Empire State-bred counterpart since winning an allowance optional claiming event over Saratoga's inner turf in August 2019.

Breaking from the inside post under jockey Jose Ortiz, Cross Border took back and tipped off the inside moving into the three-path in third position as Blewitt led the field into the first turn. With The J Y tracking right to his outside in second, Blewitt controlled the pace through easy opening fractions of 25.48 seconds for the quarter-mile and 48.95 for the half over the firm turf course.

Around the far turn, Cross Border began inching his way into contention as Blewitt maintained his advantage under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. Past the three-sixteenths pole, Cross Border had it all wrapped up, hitting the wire in 1:41.75. Rapt was second, a nose ahead of Blewitt. The J Y completed the order of finish. Dante's Fire and main track only entrant Yankee Division were scratched.

Returning $2.60 for a $2 win bet, Cross Border made his eighth trip to the winner's circle in 25 starts. Additionally, the Lubash was a first stakes triumph for Cross Border, who previously earned graded stakes black type when second in the Grade 3 W.L. McKnight at Gulfstream Park on January 25. Banking $46,750 in victory, Cross Border has now accumulated lifetime earnings of $396,971. A three-time winner over the turf at Saratoga last year, Cross Border is now unbeaten in four starts at the Spa.

“It looked like Todd's horse [Blewitt, No. 6] and Cross Border were the speed of the race. He's done well in the past stalking but on paper he looked like the class,” Maker said. “I think his tactical speed helps him, but also being a New York-bred and the conditions he had really helped him last year. Plus, it was a four-horse field here and a drop in class can't hurt.”

Maker did not rule out a start in the Grade 1, $500,000 Sword Dancer on August 29 at Saratoga, which offers an automatic berth into the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf on November 7 at Keeneland.

“It could be against New York-breds or it could be the Sword Dancer, but it will be something up here,” Maker said. “He's run very well up here last year and started off well here this year.”

Ortiz said that the trip went according to plan.

“He can go for bigger things in the future. He did it pretty easy,” Ortiz said. “I knew I had the 1-hole so I decided to take him back from the get-go and put him in that winning position. I knew Blewitt had some speed and the other horse outside me [The J Y, No. 2] had some speed, too. I didn't want get into a bad position with him, I just wanted to ride him like he was much the best.”

Bred in New York by Berkshire Stud and B.D. Gibbs, Cross Border is out of the Empire Maker broodmare Empress Josephine and comes from the same family as leading New York sire Central Banker.

Live racing returns on Thursday with a 10-race card which features the $100,000 New York Stallion Stakes Series (Statue of Liberty) for 3-year-old fillies over the Mellon turf course and the Grade 1, $100,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase going 2 1/16 miles. First post is 12:50 p.m. Eastern.

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Minnesota Stewards Issue First Fines For Non-Compliance With COVID-19 Protocols At Canterbury

The Minnesota Racing Commission has followed through on executive director Steve May's promise to fine individuals for failure to adhere to COVID-19 protocols, according to rulings on the MRC website.

In a letter to Canterbury Park and the Minnesota HBPA dated July 8, May instructed MRC investigators and staff, Canterbury Park staff, and any licensee to report the name and badge number of any licensed individual that is not complying with COVID-19 protocols while at Canterbury Park to Board of Stewards. He also instructed the Board of Stewards to begin issuing civil fines for non-compliance with these protocols, beginning at $100 and escalating for repeated violations.

As of July 22, the MRC has issued nine $100 fines for violations of COVID-19 policy at Canterbury Park. The violations include failure to wear color-coded wristbands (to ensure that individuals have undergone a temperature and symptom check each day at the racetrack), proper nose and mouth coverage by a mask, and jockeys removing their masks in the winner's circle.

“I do not believe that I need to remind anyone that failure to adhere to COVID-19 protocols has led to the closure of at least two pari-mutuel racetracks throughout the United States that had previously been allowed to operate with protocols in place,” May wrote in his July 8 letter. “But I still rest assured that Minnesota's pari-mutuel racetracks can continue to offer a safe, secure facility for the horsepeople, the teams at Canterbury Park and the MRC, and most importantly the patrons visiting the racetrack. This is only possible with strict compliance to the COVID-19 protocols that have been thoroughly researched and developed with all parties in mind.”

The rulings are available at the MRC website.

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