Stakes Sunday: Star mares Sistercharlie, Elate lead the lineup

Each week, the NTRA will provide a guide to the best stakes races in North America and beyond. Races are listed in chronological order (all times Eastern). 

Keeneland's Fall Stars Weekend concludes Sunday with three stakes races, two of which are Breeders’ Cup qualifiers. Belmont Park hosts three qualifying preps on Sunday while Santa Anita Park, host of this year’s Breeders’ Cup on November 1-2, offers one more “Win and You’re In” race.

Here's what to watch for:

 

Superstar mare Enable (GB) will face 11 rivals and break from stall nine in her bid to win the Group 1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe for a record third time at Longchamp on Sunday. The 12-runner field is the smallest number of runners in the Arc since Dylan Thomas denied Youmzain in a similar-sized running in 2007. Enable, the mount of Frankie Dettori, extended her unbeaten run to 12 races when landing the Yorkshire Oaks in August and has won ten Group 1 races for John Gosden and owner Khalid Abdullah.

Leonard C. Green and Jonathan Green's Another Miracle headlines a talented field of six juveniles assembled for the Futurity, which offers an expenses-paid spot in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Trained by Gary Contessa, Another Miracle, with three starts, is the most experienced horse in the Futurity field, highlighted by a last-out score in the Skidmore on August 16 on the Saratoga turf.

Ten Broeck Farm’s Kimari, the dominating winner of Saratoga’s Bolton Landing in her most recent start, heads a field of nine entered for the Indian Summer Stakes, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race that provides the winner a fees-paid berth into the $1 million Juvenile Turf Sprint. Trained by Wesley Ward, Kimari debuted here on the main track April 25 with a 15-length victory. From there she went to Royal Ascot in England and finished second in a field of 25 in the Group 2 Queen Mary.

Champion Sistercharlie (IRE) will look to add another Grade 1 victory to her robust resume when she contests the Flower Bowl Invitational, a "Win and You're In" event for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. The brilliant Sistercharlie, who has finished out of the exacta just once in her 13-race career and amassed $3.7 million in earnings, enters the Flower Bowl on an incredible string of five straight Grade 1 victories, which began in July of last year in the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga Race Course. The Peter Brant color-bearer has followed a nearly identical progression in the second half of 2019, beginning her truncated season with dominant wins in the Diana and Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes.

Walking L Thoroughbreds’ undefeated Fighting Seabee and Three Diamonds Farm’s Field Pass, the 1-2 finishers in Saratoga’s Grade 3 With Anticipation Stakes in August, head a field of 14 for the Bourbon Stakes, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race that provides the winner a fees-paid berth into the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Trained by three-time Dixiana Bourbon winner Kenny McPeek, Fighting Seabee won his debut going a mile on the turf at Ellis Park prior to his Saratoga triumph.

Quality Response will look to extend her winning West Coast ways into her first graded stakes contest, shipping her 2-for-2 record to New York as part of a seven-horse field in the Frizette, which will offer an all-fees paid berth to the $2 million Breeder's Cup Juvenile Fillies. It also serves as New York's first prep race in the "Road to the Kentucky Oaks," offering 10 qualifying points to the winner for the 2020 Grade 1 contest on May 1 at Churchill Downs. Quality Response surged onto the scene a 7 ¼-length winner against a 10-horse field in her debut on September 1 at Del Mar. Trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, the Quality Road filly handled the stretch out in distance to post a 5 ½-length score in her stakes debut next out in the Phone Chatter 18 days later at Los Alamitos.

Merriebelle Stable’s Blue Prize (ARG), who scored her biggest U.S. victory last fall in the Spinster, will face four rivals Sunday as she tries to become the fourth horse to win the $500,000 race in consecutive years. Run at 1 1/8 miles, the Spinster is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race with the winner getting a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Distaff. Trained by Ignacio Correas IV, Blue Prize has won one of four races in 2019 with the victory coming in her most recent start in the Summer Colony at Saratoga. Among those lining up to face Blue Prize are Grade 1 winners Elate and Dunbar Road.

A field of 11 juveniles passed the entry box for the five-furlong Speakeasy, a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Ginobili, last seen in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, switches to turf, while the filly Bulletproof One takes on the boys.