Nay Lady Nay Gives Brown Another Matchmaker Win
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Photo: Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO
Nay Lady Nay wins the Matchmaker Stakes at Monmouth Park
Stop me if you've heard this before.
There was a graded turf stakes at Monmouth Park July 18, and two fillies trained by Chad Brown dueled through the final sixteenth to finish 1-2.
The specifics this time was that First Row Partners and Hidden Brook Farm's Nay Lady Nay edged stablemate Beautiful Lover to prevail by a half-length in the $152,500 WinStar Matchmaker Stakes (G3T) to kick off a slate of five graded stakes on the Haskell Day card.
"I was very pleased with both fillies' efforts," Brown said from Saratoga Race Couse. "Both got good trips and kicked nicely."
The Matchmaker underscored why Brown has been the Eclipse Award-winning trainer for the past four years, and the female turf champ has resided in his barn the past three. Suffice it to say, with Rushing Fall, Newspaperofrecord, Uni, and Sistercharlie in their stalls this year, four champs in a row is hardly out of the question.
Yet when it comes to turf females, Brown's barn has depth from top to bottom. Nay Lady Nay and Beautiful Lover completed the Matchmaker exacta as the two betting choices in the field of seven.
He also sent out William Lawrence and Bradley Thoroughbreds' Tapit Today to finish fourth.
Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Tango Uniform Racing's Feel Glorious was third for trainer Christophe Clement in a race where the owners of the top three finishers can collect on a total value of $50,000 in stallion seasons to WinStar's Exaggerator , Take Charge Indy , and Yoshida .
The Matchmaker set up nicely for the top two finishers as Tapit Today pressed the pace-setting Valedictorian through a :47.68 opening half-mile, with Nay Lady Nay and Beautiful Lover third and fourth, respectively, on the final turn of the 1 1/8-mile stakes. As the two speedsters weakened in the stretch, Brown's two runners went by, with 2-1 favorite Nay Lady Nay ($6.40) prevailing to give the 41-year-old trainer his third win in four years in the stakes and fourth in six years.
"She's a nice filly, and she showed some nice speed," jockey Paco Lopez said. "Chad has done a great job with her."
The victory was the fourth in seven starts for the 4-year-old daughter of No Nay Never out of the English Channel mare Lady Ederle who has earned $356,180. Bred in Ireland by Stephen Sullivan, she was bought by Hidden Brook for $210,000 from the Eddie Woods consignment at the 2018 Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.
Eighth in the May 30 Old Forester Mint Julep Stakes (G3T) in her only other 2020 start, though she was only beaten by two lengths, Nay Lady Nay closed her 3-year-old campaign with a win in the Mrs. Revere Stakes (G2T).
A full sister to group 2 winner Arizona, Nay Lady Nay is the second grade/group stakes winner from Lady Ederle's three foals to race.
Her dam also has an unraced 2-year-old filly named Lady Peoria by Estidhkaar.
Paul Pompa Jr. and Gary Tolchin's 3-1 second choice, Beautiful Lover, a 4-year-old daughter of Arch ridden by Joe Bravo who was fourth in the Gamely Stakes (G1T) in her previous start, finished three-quarters of a length ahead of Feel Glorious, a Bated Breath 4-year-old.