Three half siblings are all stakes winners

Call it the equine version of the family that sticks together wins stakes together.

Florida-based broodmare Sisters Creek is represented this season by not one, not two, but three half sibling stakes winners. The Florida-bred trio of Magic Mecke, A. J. Melini, and Yesbyjimminy are all Trilogy Stables homebreds, and the three Eddie Plesa Jr. trainees reside in the same shedrow at Calder Race Course.

Trilogy is comprised of longtime friends Marion Montanari and David and Olga Melin. Montanari boards Sisters Creek, a Pentelicus mare that Trilogy raced, at her 110-acre Marion Hills Farm in Ocala. The stable purchased Sisters Creek for $50,000 at the 1996 Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. Calder selected two-year-olds in training sale.

"When we bought Sisters Creek, we were just looking for a nice horse to race," Montanari said. "She was from a great old Ocala Stud [Farm] family, so we knew we couldn't go wrong there."

Ocala Stud bred and sold Sisters Creek. She is out of the winning Mighty Appealing mare Mighty Intimate and is a half sister to multiple stakes winner Compendium. Mighty Intimate's half sister, the On to Glory mare On to Royalty, produced 1996 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner and sire Louis Quatorze, and her full sister Penniless Heiress is the dam of Grade 1 winner Wildcat Heir.

Those are just the highlights

of the highlights, because Sisters Creek's immediate family includes 15 other stakes winners. With that kind of black-type power, Trilogy had every reason to believe that Sisters Creek would make a fantastic broodmare following a two-year career in which she won one of 22 starts, earned $45,945, and finished second in the 1996 Melaleuca Stakes.

Sisters Creek wasted little time in contributing to the family's genetic pool. Her second foal is a 2000 Mecke colt named Magic Mecke who won the '06 Mecke Handicap and two other stakes in '03.

In 2001, Sisters Creek produced A. J. Melini, a Matty G colt who has won three stakes in '06. The colt's name combines the name of Montanari's late husband, A. J., with a twist on the Melins' last name.

The baby of the group is Yesbyjimminy, a two-year-old colt by Yes It's True who won two stakes this year and finished third in the Foolish Pleasure Breeders' Cup Stakes. Overall, Sisters Creek's progeny have won six stakes this year and earned $361,620 for Trilogy. She has a weanling filly by Peace Rules, and all five of her foals of racing age have started and won.

"We are having so much fun with this group of racehorses," said Montanari. "They've become celebrities at Calder. A. J. Melini even has his own fan club."

Sisters Creek is in foal to Songandaprayer.--JoAnn Guidry