Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf: Brant, Brown running half-sisters Sistercharlie and My Sister Nat
LEXINGTON, Ky. – There will be a sister act on Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, as Sistercharlie and My Sister Nat face off in a rare, but not unprecedented, case of half-siblings meeting up.
The two mares are part of a strong hand at this Breeders’ Cup for owner Peter Brant, who came back into racing in 2017, some 20 years after disbanding a massively successful stable. His horses are trained by Chad Brown.
“I’ve learned quite a lot from him,” Brown said. “He’s extremely knowledgeable about breeding and the racing industry. It’s refreshing as well to get some insight into the way things were his first time around and to hear him talk about the differences he sees, where he thinks the industry should go. He has such tremendous passion for the sport. Most of all, he loves his horses, which is really important to me with a client. He loves all of his horses.”
Irish-born Sistercharlie, by Myboycharlie, and French-bred My Sister Nat, by Acclamation, were both bred by Ecurie Des Monceaux and began their careers in Europe before coming to the U.S. for Brant. They are out of the remarkable Galileo mare Starlet’s Sister, who is also the dam of Sottsass, a son of Siyouni and winner of this fall’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Sistercharlie, a seven-time Grade 1 winner, won the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf to earn an Eclipse Award and was third in last year’s renewal of the race. She has finished third in both her starts this year. My Sister Nat, who scored her first U.S. win in the Grade 3 Waya Stakes in August at Saratoga, comes off a close runner-up effort in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl at Belmont.
“They’re quite different – they look quite different, and they train a little differently,” Brown said. “But they’re both quality runners, and obviously the mare they’re out of is pretty special. Sistercharlie is bigger, with a little bit stronger turn of foot. They both come from off the pace – that’s one similarity.”
Sistercharlie and My Sister Nat will become the fifth pair of half or full siblings to face each other in a Breeders’ Cup event. The first such matchup occurred in the 1994 Sprint, when Honor the Hero finished seventh, with half-brother Prenup 13th. Half-brothers Good Journey and Aldebaran were third and 11th in the 2002 Mile. The only pair of full siblings to meet in a Breeders’ Cup race had their matchup in the 2008 Dirt Mile, when Slew’s Tiznow and Slew’s Tizzy were 10th and 11th. Last year, two-time Turf Sprint winner Stormy Liberal finished eighth in the race behind half-brother Leinster, who was seventh.
Should My Sister Nat prove victorious, Starlet’s Sister would join an elite group of mares to produce multiple Breeders’ Cup winners. In alphabetical order, the mares to hold that distinction are Hasili, the dam of 2001 Filly and Mare Turf winner Banks Hill and 2005 winner Intercontinental; Leslie’s Lady, dam of three-time Breeders’ Cup heroine Beholder and Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn; Primal Force, the dam of 1998 Classic winner Awesome Again and 2000 Juvenile winner Macho Uno; Sweet Life, dam of 2004 Juvenile Fillies winner Sweet Catomine and 2009 Ladies’ Classic winner Life Is Sweet; and Win Approval, dam of a pair of Mile winners in Miesque’s Approval (2006) and World Approval (2017).