Batavia: Sister Mary Maude streaks into Friday's NYSS

The New York Sire Stakes will make its final 2023 visit to Batavia Downs on Friday (Sept. 1) when two $51,500 divisions of 2-year-old trotting fillies will line up to vie for the $103,000 in purse money and the statistical leader in this category will be on hand to compete.

Sister Mary Maude (Crazy Wow-Perfect Mass) is the current points leader of this NYSS demographic and comes into this race on a five-race win streak, four of which were consecutive NYSS wins. She recently became a member of the Burke Brigade after they acquired her on July 3 and Sister Mary Maude has provided those connections with three wins already. She was scratched sick in her last engagement at Vernon Downs, meaning she’s been off over two weeks. But with post one in a short field, Sister Mary Maude will look to extend her win total to six for trainer Ron Burke, who has Jordan Stratton in the bike for this week’s competition.

Looking to prevent that from happening is Sadbirdstillsing (Chapter Seven-Fade Into You), who did compete in the NYSS at Vernon and won in 1:56 3/5 to take a new lifetime mark. That was her first win of the year but it came on the heels of three very close second-place finishes, the last two being only by a head. With that maiden tag finally behind her, Sadbirdstillsing will try to start a streak of her own with Tyler Buter at the lines for trainer Tony Alagna.

The other group of girls finds Erin (E L Titan-Blurred), the track handicapper’s early choice although she’s winless to this point. She has five lifetime starts, all in NYSS action and has hit the board three times. Erin has good gate speed, and with post one should be able to control this race from the start. Jim Morrill Jr. will drive for trainer Dan Daley.

Crowbar Girl (Chapter Seven-Miss Trixton) has seven lifetime starts and has tasted victory in her first and most recent outings. However in between she’s been unpredictable, to say the least. That said, she has the fastest lifetime mark of the group (1:57 1/5) as well as the highest earnings this year ($34,281), so she is definitely a player. Jordan Stratton will drive Crowbar Girl from post four for Ron Burke.

There are also two $20,000 NYSS Excelsior divisions on the program and those splits will be contested in races eight and nine. The NYSS main events are carded as race six and seven.

-edited release (Tim Bojarski for Batavia)