ON her first start since capturing the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Churchill Downs last November, Peter Brant’s Eclipse Award-winning mare Sistercharlie picked up where she left off when she won the Grade 1 Diana Stakes over nine furlongs on turf at Saratoga’s opening weekend.

She won her fifth Grade 1 with relative ease by a length and three-quarters from her Chad Brown-trained stable companions Rushing Fall and Homerique.

The Irish-bred is a daughter of Myboycharlie out of the Galileo mare Starlet’s Sister, making her a half-sister to the Prix du Jockey Club winner Sottsass.

The five-year-old mare settled back in the six-horse field as Brown’s outsider Thais, also in the Brant colours, made the running. Close up in main group behind two clear leaders, she made headway two out, came wide into straight, ran on to lead inside the final furlong for John Velazquez.

Rushing Fall, normally a front-runner, was held up in third time and though she quickened to lead in the straight, she was unable to hold the run of Sistercharlie.

The winner is now likely to join fellow Brown trainee Bricks And Mortar, the top turf male, on the trip to Arlington International Racecourse for August 10th as they are being pointed to the Grade 1 Beverly D. and Grade 1 Arlington Million respectively.

All too easy for Elate in Delaware

AT Delaware, another Grade 1-winning mare, Elate, ran out an impressive winner in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap, a race she also won last year.

Elate travelled four wide into the backstretch in midpack.

Jose Ortiz asked for her effort as they entered the far turn and Elate made a sweeping move to stick her head in front after the quarter pole.

Once they straightened up, she strode away from Escape Clause and was eased down late on, winning by four and a half lengths.

A dual Grade 1 winner at three, Elate raced only twice in 2018. She captured this contest in style on her seasonal debut, then was second to champion Abel Tasman in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes and missed the end of the season with injury.

Trainer Bill Mott also trained Royal Delta, also a back-to-back winner of this race in 2012-13.

Also on the card, the Just A Kiss Stakes, a stakes race over a mile and an eighth, went to the Irish-bred four-year-old Capla Temptress (by Lope De Vega, bred by Pier House Stud) in the Juddmonte colours and also trained by Bill Mott.

Veneer Of Charm, who won the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle for Gordon Elliott in 2018, won an allowance race over a mile and half a furlong on the card. The gelding is now in the charge of Richard J. Hendriks for owners Rosbrian Farm.

Winner back with a win

ON the west coast, the 2018 top two-year-old Game Winner, got his first win of the season in the Grade 3 Los Alamitos Derby at odds of 1/20 when he saw off the challenge of the maiden Parsimony to register a five-length win. He had been fifth in the Kentucky Derby last time after seconds in the Rebel Stakes and the Santa Anita Derby. Owners Gary and Mary West also own the disqualifed Kentucky Derby winner and Haskell runner Maximum Security.

Baffert said afterwards: “I think this was a perfect race for him. I put the blinkers back on him because I wanted him to get a little bit more focused leaving the gate and into the race a little bit more. He was falling back a little too far. He had worked exceptionally well coming into this. I think that break really helped him. I love the way he finished the last eighth of a mile. The plan right now is the Travers [August 24th at Saratoga].’’