Mrs. Sippy sitting on ready for Waya Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After Mrs. Sippy missed two scheduled starts earlier this summer, trainer Graham Motion is hopeful the third time will be a charm for his Grade 1-placed mare, who looks to finally open her 2020 campaign in the $150,000 Waya, part of the undercard for Saturday’s Runhappy Travers Day program at Saratoga.
Mrs. Sippy is one of seven fillies and mares entered for the Grade 3 Waya, a 1 1/2-mile turf race. Also entered are defending champion Fools Gold and My Sister Nat, both trained by Chad Brown. The remainder of the lineup consists of Beau Belle, Quiet Dignity, Olympic Games, and Another Broad, who runs only if the race is shifted to the main track.
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Mrs. Sippy was originally scheduled to launch her season in the Grade 2 New York at Belmont Park on June 27, but had a little setback two days before the race. She was scratched from the Grade 3 Robert Dick Memorial at Delaware Park two weeks later after that race was taken off the turf. A homebred daughter of Blame owned by Andrew Stone, Mrs. Sippy won the Grade 2 Glens Falls in her U.S. debut here last summer and was second in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl. She has not started since finishing ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
“She’s been ready to run for a month or so, so she shouldn’t need a race on Saturday even though she’s been away since the Breeders’ Cup,” Motion said. “She obviously started her U.S. career really well, winning here and finishing second in the Flower Bowl. Maybe the Breeders’ Cup ended up being one race too many. Sometimes with these European horses the racing catches up with them.”
The 1 1/2-mile distance of the Waya should suit Mrs. Sippy, who won at the distance as a 3-year-old in France.
“I think a mile and one-half is what she wants to do, and the lack of pace in the race doesn’t concern me because she’s a filly that can be positioned where she wants,” Motion said.
Fools Gold is winless in three starts since registering a three-quarter-length decision over Explicit in the 2019 Waya. She finished fifth, five lengths behind Mrs. Sippy, four weeks later in the Glens Falls and is coming off a fifth-place finish making her 2020 debut in the New York Stakes.
Fools Gold has stalked the pace in her recent races. She will have Javier Castellano aboard.
“She could be the speed in this race,” said Brown. “I’ll let Javier figure that out.”
My Sister Nat finished second, 5 1/4 lengths behind wire-to-wire winner Mean Mary, while also making her seasonal debut in the New York.
“Both of them needed that race,” said Brown. “She made her normal late run last time and I’ve really wanted to get her out to a mile and one-half, so I’m excited and really looking forward to that.”
Olympic Games could be sitting on her best yet in her third U.S. appearance following a pair of second-place finishes in minor stakes at Belmont and Gulfstream Park earlier in the year.