Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will send out defending champ My Sister Nat along with Orglandes in Sunday's Grade 3, $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Waya, an 11-furlong inner turf test for fillies and mares, at Belmont Park.
The Fasig-Tipton Waya, slated as Race 8, is part of a lucrative 10-race card that includes the Grade 1, $400,000 Frizette [Race 9], a one-turn mile for 2-year-old fillies offering a “Win and You're In” berth to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies; and the Grade 2, $200,000 Pilgrim [Race 4], a 1 1/16-mile turf test for juveniles. First post on Sunday is 1 p.m. Eastern.
Brown will seek his fifth career Waya win and third straight following scores with Goldy Espony [2015], Guapaza [2016], Fools Gold [2019] and My Sister Nat, who captured the 2020 renewal traveling 12-furlongs on the inner turf last August at Saratoga to secure her first win in North America.
A Group 3 winner at Longchamp in her native France, the Peter Brant-owned 6-year-old Acclamation bay joined Brown in 2019 and made her first three starts against optional claiming company before finishing a late-closing second beaten a neck in the Grade 3 Long Island at Aqueduct.
Following her Waya score, My Sister Nat closed to finish second last year in both the Grade 2 Glens Falls at the Spa and the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont, finishing a head short of Civil Union.
My Sister Nat enters from a closing third in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl on September 4 at Saratoga where she encountered traffic trouble behind stablemate American Bridge while rallying from last-of-6 to finish 2 1/4-lengths back of War Like Goddess.
Brown said the talented bay, who has hit the board in 3-of-4 starts this year, is training well towards her title defense.
“I certainly love the way she's training and I don't think she got a good trip last time. I felt this filly could have been a lot closer at the finish,” Brown said. “She kind of ran into the other horse we ran [American Bridge], who was sort of in her way when she wanted to make her move on the inside and it really cost her a couple lengths of momentum. At least she could have been closer and made it a little bit more of a race at the end.”
Although My Sister Nat has yet to win on the Belmont turf [6-0-2-3], Brown said he expects a good showing.
“She really runs good here. She's had a couple unlucky trips,” Brown said. “She got beat a head in the Flower Bowl, arguably one of her best races. I love her on Belmont's course.”
Brown said a good effort Sunday could propel My Sister Nat to a start in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in November at Del Mar.
“If she can go over there and really put in a strong performance and her number comes back legitimate and it looks like she has a shot in there, I'd love to make her final start in the Breeders' Cup, if we can,” Brown said.
Bred in France by Ecurie de Monceaux, My Sister Nat is out of the Galileo mare Starlet's Sister, who produced 2018 Champion Turf Mare Sistercharlie as well as 2019 Group 1 French Derby winner Sottsass.
Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables and Michael J. Caruso's Orglandes, a 5-year-old Le Havre bay, will make her third start of the campaign following sixth-place finishes in both the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay in May at Belmont and the Grade 2 Glens Falls in August at the Spa.
Last year, the French-bred mare won 2-of-3 starts, including a score in the 11-furlong Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap in November at Del Mar.
Brown said Orglandes has demonstrated a return to form recently in her morning training.
“Orglandes is a horse that really didn't come back into form this year. I've been disappointed with her,” Brown said. “She's come back this last month and is rounding back into form in her works after I thought maybe we had lost the year with her. I gave her a little breather and I really like the way she's turned it around in her works.”
Brown said a good effort Sunday could see Orglandes target the Grade 3, $400,000 Long Island, a 12-furlong turf test on November 27 at the Big A.
“She got to contend with a layoff now and going that far, but I'm just looking for a positive effort with her, something I can use to the end of the year to get me into the Long Island,” Brown said.
Jose Ortiz will pilot My Sister Nat from the outermost post 7, while Orglandes will emerge from post 4 under Irad Ortiz, Jr.
Christophe Clement will saddle a pair of formidable contenders in R Unicorn Stable's Call Me Love and Moyglare Stud Farm's Beautiful Lover.
Call Me Love, a 5-year-old chestnut daughter of Sea the Stars, won the Group 3 Premio Verziere Memorial Aldo Cirla at San Siro and the Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio at Capannelle in 2019 in Italy.
Transferred to Clement for her 4-year-old season, Call Me Love hit the board in both the Grade 3 Beaugay at Belmont and the Grade 2 Ballston Spa at Saratoga last year, before securing her first North American stakes triumph in the 12-furlong River Memories on July 11 at Belmont.
Call Me Love enters from a distant seventh in the Grade 3 Glens Falls.
Beautiful Lover, a 5-year-old Arch bay, captured the 2019 Boiling Springs at 1 1/16-miles on the Monmouth turf in the care for former conditioner Chad Brown. Transferred to Clement for her current campaign, the multiple graded-stakes placed dark bay finished fifth in the Distaff Turf in March at Tampa Bay Downs ahead of a neck win last out over next-out winner Miss Teheran in a 1 1/16-mile optional-claiming event June 27 on the Belmont turf.
Out of the Quiet American mare American Skipper, Beautiful Lover is a half-sister to New York-bred graded-stakes winning millionaire Zivo.
Manny Franco will pilot Call Me Love from post 5, while Joel Rosario will guide Beautiful Lover from post 6.
Repole Stable homebred Always Shopping, a 5-year-old Awesome Again mare trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, is a graded-stakes winner on dirt and turf.
The versatile bay captured the nine-furlong Grade 2 Gazelle in 2019 on the Big A main track and added a victory in the 11-furlong Grade 3 Orchid in March on the Gulfstream Park turf.
Always Shopping will stretch out from a two-month layoff out of a fifth-place finish in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Matchmaker on July 17 at Monmouth Park.
“We shortened her up in distance where she's not at her best and we're bringing her back at a mile and three eighths. Hopefully, she can regain her best form,” Pletcher said.
Ricardo Santana, Jr. has the call from post 2.
Rounding out the field are Lovely Lucky [post 1, Dylan Davis] and Sister Otoole [post 3, Luis Saez].
The Waya is named in honor of Peter Brant and George Strawbridge Jr.'s champion turf mare, who was a four-time Grade 1 winner in the United States. Waya was a multiple stakes winner in her native France before moving to the United States, where she won six of her nine starts, including against males in the Grade 1 Man o' War in 1978, and was named Champion Older Mare the following year.
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