My Sister Nat at top of her game for Glens Falls Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While the champion Sistercharlie has not returned to her top form in 2020, her younger sibling My Sister Nat has produced the two best performances of her stay in North America this year.
My Sister Nat will look to continue her successful 5-year-old campaign when she heads a field of seven in the Grade 2, $200,000 Glens Falls Stakes going 1 3/8 miles over Saratoga’s inner turf course.
My Sister Nat, a Group 3 winner in France in 2018, had gone winless in her first five starts in this country, though she did run a close second in the Grade 3 Long Island last fall at Aqueduct to end her 2019 campaign.
In the Grade 2 New York Stakes on June 27 at Belmont, My Sister Nat finished a well-beaten second to Mean Mary, who was winning her fourth consecutive race. In the Waya, going 1 1/2 miles here Aug. 8, My Sister Nat overcame a slow start to beat Mrs. Sippy by a neck.
“She seems to be a much better horse this year,” Brown said. “She took a while to acclimate. She never really found her groove until the end of the year. She ran a really good race in the Long Island, and I like the way she came into this year.”
Brown believes three-turn races such as the Waya and Glens Falls are better for My Sister Nat, who does have a tendency to break slowly. Jose Ortiz rides her for the fourth straight time Saturday.
“She’s not very quick out of the gate, so hopefully Jose can work out another great trip,” Brown said. “He rode her great last time.”
Brown also sends out Eliade, who is stepping up in class after a narrow loss in a second-level allowance last out.
“I hate to run them against each other, but there are not a lot of opportunities to run three turns,” Brown said.
Civil Union, who began her career in the Brown barn, comes into the race off two victories at Belmont Park for trainer Shug McGaughey. After winning a first-level allowance going 1 1/4 miles on June 21, Civil Union closed out the Belmont Park spring meet with a 1 3/4-length victory in the River Memories at 1 1/2 miles three weeks later.
“She’s trained awfully well here,” McGaughey said. “We’ll see what she does here around these shorter turns.”
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Trainer Tom Albertrani has the uncoupled entry of Beau Belle and Lovely Lucky. Lovely Lucky has won two straight and scratched out of a second-level allowance on Thursday that was rained off the turf.
Beau Belle finished fourth, beaten three lengths by My Sister Nat, in the Waya.
Pallas Athene, who also was scratched out of Thursday’s off-the-turf allowance, and Complicit, third in a stakes at Indiana Grand on July 8, complete the field.
The Glens Falls is carded as the fourth race on Saturday’s 12-race program.