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​My Sister Nat defends her title in G3 Fasig-Tipton Waya

by Keith McCalmont

Peter Brant’s My Sister Nat demonstrated an impressive turn-of-foot to successfully defend her title in Sunday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Waya, an 11-furlong inner turf test for fillies and mares 3-year-olds and up, at Belmont Park.

The victory provided her four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown with his fifth Waya win and third straight following scores with Goldy Espony [2015], Guapaza [2016], Fools Gold [2019] and defending champ My Sister Nat, who won last year’s edition which was contested at 12 furlongs on the inner turf at Saratoga Race Course.

Always Shopping, piloted by Ricardo Santana, Jr., broke alertly and led the field through splits of 25.63 seconds, 52.01 and 1:17.52 over the firm turf with Call Me Love tracking in second position outside of a ground-saving Lovely Lucky. My Sister Nat, with Jose Ortiz up, settled comfortably in sixth position in front of stablemate Orglandes, who was squeezed between rivals in the opening jumps and trailed.

Ortiz urged My Sister Nat into contention through the final turn and the filly picked off rivals at a rapid pace with Orglandes following in her wake under Irad Ortiz, Jr. My Sister Nat made the lead at the stretch call and powered home a comfortable 2 1/2-length winner in a final time of 2:15.37. Orglandes completed the exacta by a neck over a game Always Shopping.

Ortiz said he felt confident throughout while tracking Beautiful Lover through the early stages near the back of the pack.

“In this kind of race they usually go slow,” Ortiz said. “It felt like they went 50 or 51 but I was following who I thought was the right horse and around the three-eighths pole I put her in the clear and she gave me such a great feeling. She just was handling the course really well. She gave me a great kick from the three-eighths pole to the wire, and she kept running.”

A Group 3 winner at Longchamp in her native France, the 6-year-old Acclamation bay joined Brown’s stable in 2019 but did not secure her first North American win until last year’s Waya.

The ultra-consistent My Sister Nat, who has hit the board in eight graded stakes starts in North America, entered from a closing third in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl on September 4 at Saratoga where she encountered traffic trouble.

Dan Stupp, Brown’s Belmont-based assistant, said he was pleased to see My Sister Nat secure the win.

“She’s a very nice and very honest mare. She’s had a very consistent career. She shows up every time with her run,” Stupp said. “Sometimes pace dynamics don’t work out in her favor, and we get a little unlucky but Jose always rides her well and she always shows up. It’s nice to see her put in another strong effort."

Stupp said he was impressed by the effort from Orglandes, last year’s Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap winner at Del Mar, who entered from consecutive off-the-board efforts in graded events.

“She won out in California last year. She was one that we always had some high hopes for this year,” Stupp said. “We just got sidetracked with some minor stuff. It’s nice to see her get back on track. We thought she would have a solid campaign and hopefully we can move forward off this race.”

Sister Otoole, Beautiful Lover, Call Me Love and Lovely Lucky rounded out the order of finish.

Bred in France by Ecurie de Monceaux, My Sister Nat is out of the Galileo mare Starlet's Sister, who produced 2018 Champion Turf Mare Sistercharlie as well as last year's Group 1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe-winner Sottsass. My Sister Nat banked $165,000 in victory and returned $3 on a $2 win wager.

Live racing returns Thursday at Belmont Park with a nine-race card. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

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