Fourstar Crook holds off stablemate Sistercharlie in New York Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown always felt Fourstar Crook was capable of winning a major graded stakes in the filly and mare turf division. He may not have thought it was going to come at the expense of Sistercharlie.

Friday, Fourstar Crook, a hard-trying, overachieving 6-year-old New York-bred mare, got a better trip than did her more highly regarded stablemate Sistercharlie and held her off to win the Grade 2, $600,000 New York Stakes by a head at Belmont Park. It was 1 1/4 lengths to Daddys Lil Darling in third.

“Tale of two trips,” Brown said. “Fourstar Crook’s a very nice filly and a deserving winner of a race of this caliber. Sistercharlie had a nightmare trip.”

Indeed, she did. In a race where there was a run-off pacesetter, Sistercharlie got squeezed at the start and was last, 28 1/2 lengths back, after the opening half-mile. As she tried to make a move into contention under John Velazquez around the three-eighths pole, Sistercharlie got shuffled back to last again. Meanwhile, Fourstar Crook had a relatively unimpeded trip under Irad Ortiz Jr., while just in front of Sistercharlie.

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Fourstar Crook, 26 1/2 lengths back after a half, rallied wide in the stretch, and came out a path or two, which forced Velazquez to dive Sistercharlie to the inside of Fourstar Crook and she just ran out of ground.

“I didn’t break good enough to get a position where I wanted to be,” Velazquez said. “I was supposed to be in front of the horse who won and I was behind her. She made a huge run, it’s hard to come from where she was and make up all that ground.”

Fourstar Crook had finished second to Sistercharlie in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland. That race was at 1 1/16 miles, a distance at which Brown felt Sistercharlie may have proved more vulnerable than Friday.

“To see her way out of position – I know it was a weirdly run race the field all strung out – it was very disappointing, but her effort wasn’t,” Brown said.

Fourstar Crook, owned by Michael Dubb, Michael Caruso, and Gary Aisquith, covered the 1 1/4 miles in 1:59.21 and returned $10.80 as the second choice.

It was the richest victory for Fourstar Crook, who improved her record to 11 wins from 17 starts. The $330,000 first-place purse pushed Fourstar Crook’s career earnings to $1,213,166.

“Mike Dubb and his partners deserve a lot of credit,” Brown said “Mike’s the one that decided to race this mare at 6, which is not always the in-thing to do with horses that have broodmare value.”

Dubb said it wasn’t a difficult decision to bring Fourstar Crook back to the races this year.

“We never got to the bottom of her,” he said. “She loves her job, she’s honest and she shows up. She probably means to me what Lady Eli meant to Sol Kumin.”