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41 Years After His Waya Was Champion Mare, Brant Wins Race Named In Her Honor With My Sister Nan

Peter Brant's My Sister Nat notched her first North American victory in a graded stakes race named after her owner's 1979 Champion Older Mare when taking the 21st running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Waya going 1 1/2 miles over the inner turf at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Trained by Chad Brown, My Sister Nat was placed in three of her five starts since moving to the United States and arrived at the Waya off a runner-up finish to Mean Mary in the Grade 2 New York on June 27 at Belmont Park.

“It's definitely special,” Brown said of winning the Waya for Brant. “It's a race we've been targeting since he got back in the game. She just went into the Hall of Fame last year, the great Waya. That was really great to win this.”

My Sister Nat broke a touch slow out of the gate under jockey Jose Ortiz, and settled last of the six runners along the rail as stablemate and last year's Waya victor Fools Gold took the field into the first turn through an opening quarter-mile is 25.46 seconds.

As the tightly packed field made their way into the clubhouse turn through a half-mile in 50.72, Fools Gold maintained her one-length advantage while My Sister Nat moved up into fifth and remained on even terms with Olympic Games down the backstretch.

Ortiz angled My Sister Nat out two paths heading into the far turn and gave his mare her cue approaching the quarter-pole as Fools Gold continued to command the pace. My Sister Nat found herself on even terms with favorite Mrs. Sippy who launched her bid to her inside. Just outside the sixteenth-pole, My Sister Nat put a head in front and prevailed by a neck over Mrs. Sippy in a final time of 2:30.26 over a firm turf. Fools Gold finished another 1 1/4 lengths back in third.

Beau Belle, Olympic Games and Quiet Dignity completed the order of finish. Main track only entrant Another Broad was scratched.

“We saved ground in the first two turns and in the third turn I started looking for a place to go,” said Ortiz. “Chad always tells me in three-turn races to save ground in two and in the third do whatever you want. I started working my way out and I'm glad it worked out.”

The win was a fourth Waya victory for Brown, who saddled Goldy Espony (2015), Guapaza (2016) and Fools Gold (2019) to previous triumphs.

“In these types of races, there's not a lot of pace. I thought Jose came to the paddock with a really good plan,” said Brown. “He said he was going to try and stay closer and he was able to find the one during the race to follow which I thought was smart. We didn't change her style, but we stayed with the pack this time and didn't let her fall too far back. Jose deserves a lot of credit for that.”

Returning $6.90 for a $2 win bet, My Sister Nat earned $82,500 in victory while enhancing her lifetime earnings to $341,672.

A Group 3 winner at Longchamp in her native France, My Sister Nat made her first three starts against optional claiming company before running in the Grade 3 Long Island on November 30 at Aqueduct where she was a late-closing second beaten a neck.

“I have to thank Peter for keeping her in training,” Brown said. “She's a half to Sistercharlie and it would have been easy to retire her. We found that last year it took all the way to the end of the year for her to really acclimate. We got her in a three-turn race at the end of the year in the Long Island at Aqueduct and she should have won but she got in a lot of trouble. In only her second three-turn race, we saw what she can do, and we're going to try and keep her in races like this.”

Bred in France by Ecurie de Monceaux, My Sister Nat is a bay mare by Acclamation out of Starlet's Sister, who produced 2018 Champion Turf Mare Sistercharlie as well as last year's Group 1 French Derby winner Sottsass.

Live racing returns on Sunday with a 10-race card which features the $85,000 Alydar for 4-year-olds and upward going 1 1/8 miles over the main track. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.

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Into Mischief’s Gamine Gallops Again in Test

Michael Lund Petersen’s ‘TDN Rising Star‘ Gamine (Into Mischief) turned in her second jaw-dropping performance in a row as she dominated Saturday’s GI Longines Test S., covering seven furlongs at Saratoga in a blazing 1:20.83. That time matched the stakes record set by Lady Tak in 2003, and was significantly faster than the 1:21.63 last year’s GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Serengeti Empress (Alternation) went in the GI Ballerina S. for older fillies a few races earlier. Kept well off the rail with formidable foe and chief market rival Venetian Harbor (Munnings) hard held while applying the pressure through splits of :22.70 and :45.14, last year’s $1.8-million Fasig-Tipton Midlantic topper shook loose at the top of the lane and cantered home under a hands-and-heels ride to cruise under the line seven lengths in front, as easily as her 3-10 odds suggested she might. Venetian Harbor was a clear-cut second best with late-running Up in Smoke (The Big Beast) filling out the trifecta.

Saturday, Saratoga
LONGINES TEST S.-GI, $291,000, Saratoga, 8-8, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:20.83, ft.
1–GAMINE, 123, f, 3, by Into Mischief
               1st Dam: Peggy Jane (SP, $102,050), by Kafwain
2nd Dam: Seattle Splash, by Chief Seattle
3rd Dam: Grand Splash, by Bucksplasher
‘TDN Rising Star‘ ($220,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP; $1,800,000 2yo
’19 EASMAY). O-Michael Lund Petersen; B-Grace
Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Bob Baffert; J-John R.
Velazquez. $165,000. Lifetime Record: 4-3-0-0, $363,000.
Werk Nick Rating: A++.
   Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Venetian Harbor, 121, f, 3, by Munnings
                1st Dam: Sounds of the City, by Street Cry (Ire)
                2nd Dam: Welcome Home, by Dixieland Band
                3rd Dam: Safe Return, by Mr. Prospector
($110,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP; $205,000 RNA 2yo ’19 OBSAPR).
O-Ciaglia Racing LLC, Highland Yard LLC, River Oak Farm &
Dominic Savides; B-Colts Neck Stables LLC (KY); T-Richard
Baltas. $60,000.
3–Up in Smoke, 129, f, 3, by The Big Beast
                1st Dam: Therese, by Exchange Rate
                2nd Dam: Proud Ciel, by Septieme Ciel
                3rd Dam: Proud Encore, by Tri Jet
($45,000 Ylg ’18 OBSOCT; $230,000 2yo ’19 EASMAY). O-Black
Type Thoroughbreds & R. A. Hill Stable; B-John D Rio & Carole
A Rio (FL); T-George Weaver. $36,000.
Margins: 7, 6HF, 7. Odds: 0.30, 3.00, 16.50.
Also Ran: Perfect Alibi, Mrs. Danvers. Scratched: Wicked Whisper. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

“Obviously, she’s very good,” said Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez, who also piloted Gamine in the Acorn. “You love to be on these kinds of horses. I have to thank [trainer] Bob [Baffert] and the owners for the opportunity. Bob said she breaks well and to kind of let her do her thing. If another horse wants to go too fast, we just let her sit second and she’ll be fine sitting second. But she broke so good and the other horse kind of stayed right next to me and didn’t press the pace very much, so I just kind of let her do what she wanted to do the first quarter-mile. Once we got to the turn, I let her get into the turn and she got really comfortable and really smooth and got away from the other horse and kept going. Very nice.”

Gamine brought a record price at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale last term off a bullet :10 flat breeze, but missed some time in the summer of her juvenile season before getting back to working in late November. She debuted a 6 1/4-length winner sprinting at Santa Anita Mar. 7, and crossed the line a neck to the good of eventual GI Central Bank Ashland S. heroine Speech (Mr Speaker) in a two-turn Oaklawn optional claimer May 2, only to be later disqualified from purse money for a Lidocaine positive. The bay could not have been more dominant in the GI Longines Acorn S. over a one-turn mile at Belmont June 20, running up the score to 18 3/4 lengths while earning a 110 Beyer Speed Figure.

“She’s rising straight to the top,” said assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes. “For what she’s accomplished so far for such a lightly raced filly, we look forward to stretching her out and see what comes of that.”

Gamine is expected to take on a strong field in next month’s nine-furlong GI Kentucky Oaks.

Pedigree Notes:
Spendthrift stalwart Into Mischief is the leading general sire in North America this year, and was represented earlier in the day Saturday by impressive debuting juvenile Mutasaabeq, who garnered the ‘TDN Rising Star‘ distinction.

Gamine’s New York-bred dam Peggy Jane was a $200,000 OBSAPR ’11 juvenile buy and was stakes-placed going an extended mile on the Aqueduct inner track. Peggy Jane’s now 2-year-old colt Splashtown (Speightstown) was a $300,000 Fasig-Tipton October purchase by Starlight and recorded his first published breeze at Pimlico Saturday morning (4f, :52.80, 9/9).

Gamine has a yearling half-sister by Ghostzapper and a foal half-brother by Kantharos. Peggy Jane was bred back to Into Mischief for 2021.

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Eurton Hoping To Hit Storm The Court’s Reset Button In Grassy La Jolla

The burgeoning but eventful, to say the least, career of Storm the Court comes full circle Sunday when the 3-year-old son of Court Vision gets tested on turf for the first time in the Grade III, $125,000 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar near San Diego, Calif.

Barely less than a year ago, on August 10, 2019, the colt trained by Peter Eurton for Exline-Border Racing, David Bernsen and partners, made his racing debut here a victorious one. Twenty-three days later, Storm the Court was bumped by bolting 1-2 favorite Eight Rings shortly after the start of the meet-climaxing Del Mar Futurity with both horses losing their riders.

Following that there was, as racing fans know, a 45-1 upset victory in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the honor of an Eclipse Award as top 2-year-old of 2019 and a 0-for-4 record in 2020 on the Kentucky Derby trail.

The La Jolla could turn out to be a fresh start on a new surface, or a continuation/affirmation of the still smoldering Derby fires.

“We're going to the grass to give us some options,” Eurton said Friday. “It seems like a good opportunity because, for one, we're here. We still haven't ruled out the Kentucky Derby. Even if he wins this race we won't know what we'll do. That will be something to discuss probably for the next week or two afterward.”

Storm the Court has accumulated 36 points in Kentucky Derby qualifying races and ranks 17^th in the current standings through Friday. The Run for the Roses field is set at 20.

“It's been an unusual year because of the change in schedule,” said Bernsen. “I don't think anyone has been able to stick with the plan they had after the Breeders' Cup. It will be exciting to see what he can do this weekend on the turf and it will give us some options going forward.

“His daddy won the Breeders' Cup Turf at big odds as well, and also won on dirt. So he was versatile and we think (Storm the Court) is too. That suggests it's worth giving it a shot to see what we have.

“It's nice to be able to do that and not have to travel. He's traveled quite a bit since the Breeders' Cup – Arkansas, Ohio – so it's good for us to be able to stay here and do this.”

Storm the Court's sire, Court Vision, was a five-time Grade I stakes winner. As a 2-year-old he took the Iroquois and Remsen on dirt. Switched to turf as a 3-year-old, after a 13^th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Court Vision won at least one Grade I on grass each year from ages 3-6. He ran in the Breeders' Cup Mile three times and, in his last try, upset the great mare Goldikova at odds of 30-1.

Storm the Court has worked four times at Del Mar. He had an acclimation 4 furlong go on the turf on July 12, 5-furlong grass exercises on July 19 and 26 and a 5-furlong tightener on dirt last Sunday.

The first two were to Eurton's satisfaction, the third he described as a “hiccup” work. “He outworked his company, but he was too busy gawking,” Eurton said. “But the last one (:59.40, second-best of 72 at the distance) was really good.”

The field from the rail: I'm Leaving You (Giovanni Franco, 15-1); K P All Systems Go (Abel Cedillo, 6-1); Azul Coast (Drayden Van Dyke, 4-1); Ajourneytofreedom (Ruben Gonzalez, 12-1); Kanderel (Juan Hernandez, 10-1); Smooth Like Strait (Umberto Rispoli, 5-2); Storm The Court (Flavien Prat, 3-1), and Indian Peak (Mike Smith, 6-1).

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Desormeaux: Horse That ‘Changed My Life’ Continues To Pay Dividends

My Girl Red, who cruised to a 4 3/4-length victory in Friday's Grade 2, $150,000 Sorrento Stakes, is a daughter of 2014 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red. Both were/are trained by Keith Desormeaux.

“Texas Red changed my life,” Desormeaux said after the Sorrento. “Texas Red was the culmination of a lifetime of telling myself, and other people, that you don't have to pay boxcar prices (for horses) to win major races.

“I'll always be appreciative of that, and it's icing on the cake to have the same ownership group breed this kind of mare in his first group. Hopefully, it's onwards and upwards for him.”

In making it 2-for-2 for her career, favored My Girl Red ($3.80), was in control virtually from the start without much encouragement and was merely taking stock of her surroundings during the final sixteenth of a mile.

“She's always shown that she has a lot of class and she has the physical attributes that I look for in a good horse,” Desormeaux said. “For her to win first time out is the (epitome) of class. It shows that you don't have to work forty-five and change in the morning to show that kind of speed in the afternoon.”

Like father, like daughter? Not around the barn.

“Texas Red didn't want you to touch him. He's was pretty ornery,” Desormeaux said. “He wasn't a lovable type. This filly really seems to like to be around people. None of those ornery traits for her.”

Asked if the Grade I, Del Mar Debutante (September 6) was next, Desormeaux didn't hesitate. “Oh, of course,” he said.

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