Sistercharlie will be a fresh horse for Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf
ELMONT, N.Y. – After originally planning to run Sistercharlie in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Flower Bowl at Belmont Park, trainer Chad Brown called an audible and has decided just to train the 6-year-old mare up to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland on Nov. 7.
Brown felt running in the Flower Bowl and then coming back in four weeks might be too much for the seven-time Grade 1 winner, who has finished third in both of her starts in 2020.
“If it was last week, I probably would have run,” Brown said Friday at Belmont Park. “It’s a little too close for me at this stage of her career. I’m afraid that she may need an extra week to recover and with the Breeders’ Cup being her last career start, I’d rather go in fresh.”
In 2018, Sistercharlie won the Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs after having not run since the Beverly D., 84 days earlier. This year, Sistercharlie will run in the Filly and Mare Turf off a 76-day layoff, or since running third behind stablemate Rushing Fall in the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga on Aug. 23. Brown is also training Rushing Fall into the Filly and Mare Turf.
“I know it was a while back, but she’s run well fresh in the past,” Brown said of Sistercharlie. “I like the way she’s training. It will be her final career start.”
Brown’s roster for the Filly and Mare Turf was to be completed based on how his trio of Cambier Parc, Nay Lady Nay, and My Sister Nat performed in Saturday’s Grade 1 Flower Bowl at Belmont.
The remainder of Brown’s Breeders’ Cup cast is pretty well set. Brown is pointing the quartet of Uni, Raging Bull, Digital Age, and Without Parole to the Mile; Dunbar Road to the Distaff; Complexity to the Dirt Mile, Reinvestment Risk to the Juvenile; Public Sector to the Juvenile Turf; and Front Run the Fed to the Turf Sprint.
One race Brown may not participate in this year is the Juvenile Fillies Turf, a race he has won five times. Ingrassia finished third in Wednesday’s Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland while Editor At Large was third in Sunday’s Miss Grillo at Belmont.
“We’ll monitor the race, see who’s going, but those horses may not be quite ready for that race but I’ll talk to the owners and see what’s going on,” Brown said.