Sistercharlie, Athena to Meet in Beverly D. Stakes

After posting grade 1 wins on turf in New York in their previous starts, Sistercharlie and Athena will meet for the first time in the $600,000 Beverly D. Stakes (G1T) Aug. 11 on the turf at Arlington International Racecourse.

Peter Brant's Sistercharlie will look to secure the most lucrative win of her career in Saturday's 1 3/16-mile turf test for fillies and mares and add to a season that has seen the 4-year-old daughter of Myboycharlie earn grade 1 victories in two of her first three starts.

Trained by Chad Brown, Sistercharlie opened the year with a 2 1/4-length victory over stablemate Fourstar Crook in the Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland before the latter—one of four horses trained by Brown entered in the Beverly D.—turned the tables in the New York Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G2T) to edge Sistercharlie by a head. Sistercharlie then scored a nose victory over Ultra Brat in the July 21 Diana Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course.

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One of eight females awaiting 9-5 morning-line favorite Sistercharlie will be 3-year-old Athena, who is campaigned by the Coolmore-affiliated ownership group of Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Michael Tabor. 

In her U.S. debut, the daughter of Camelot delivered a clear victory in the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T). Although that win came against other 3-year-old fillies, Athena has faced older females three times, including in her maiden win May 31 and in a third-place finish in the July 1 Juddmonte Pretty Polly Stakes (G1) at the Curragh. 

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Trained by Aidan O'Brien, Athena is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line and will carry 117 pounds, compared with the 123 assigned older fillies and mares in the field. O'Brien, who routinely starts multiple horses in top-level races, will be on the other end of the equation Saturday, as Athena is his lone starter in the race.

Michael Dubb, Bethlehem Stables, and Gary Aisquith's Fourstar Crook will try for her third graded stakes win this season and first at the highest level. The New York-bred daughter of Freud  has placed in all 10 stakes during her career, with wins in seven of those events.

Besides Sistercharlie and Fourstar Crook, Brown has entered group 3-placed Thais and stakes winner Inflexibility, who starts off a runner-up finish in the June 30 Dance Smartly Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine.

Also entered in the Beverly D., a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" race for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T), is grade 1 winner Daddys Lil Darling, who prepped on the Arlington course with a victory in the July 7 Modesty Handicap (G3T), and Dona Bruja, who finished second in last year's Beverly D.

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Rounding out the entries are Nyaleti, a group 2-winning 3-year-old who will be making her U.S. debut, and longshot Oh So Terrible, who has finished off the board in three graded stakes.

The Beverly D. Stakes will be part of an NBCSN broadcast that also will include the Arlington Million XXXV Stakes (G1T). The broadcast is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge: Win and You're In, Presented by America's Best Racing series.