BY BROCK SHERIDAN
OCTOBER 11, 2003—John Franks’ homebred Chatter Chatter trounced eight other 2-year-old fillies with a 19 ½-length victory in the $400,000 My Dear Girl, the third and final leg of the filly division of the Florida Stallion Stakes at Calder Race Course. Ridden by future Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey for trainer Martin Wolfson, Chatter Chatter led by three lengths through a half mile in :47.67 then stretched her advantage to five lengths around the turn before finishing the mile-and-a-sixteenth on a fast track in 1:47.57.
The nearly 20-length victory eclipsed the 13 ¾-length triumph scored by Ivanavinalot in the 2002 My Dear Girl and is a record that still stands.
While still a maiden in her third career start, Chatter Chatter and jockey Eduardo Nunez had finished second, a length-and-a-half behind winner French Village in the $125,000 Susan’s Girl, the seven-furlong second leg of the Florida Stallion Stakes on Aug. 30 at Calder. She then exploded to win a one-mile maiden special weight by 23 ¼ lengths at Calder on Sept. 19, making her the even-money favorite in the My Dear Girl.
It was the second My Dear Girl win in three years for Franks, who saw his Blissful Kiss win the 2001 version by three lengths.
Chatter Chatter and Bailey next won the $150,000 Joe O’Farrell Juvenile Fillies at Calder in on Nov. 15, 2003, but that would be her last career victory.
After her last race, a seventh in a third-level, $40,000 optional claiming at Calder in October of 2004, she retired with three wins, two seconds and a third in 10 starts with earnings of $393,940.
She would go on to a short but successful career as a broodmare after Franks sold her for $175,000 at the 2004 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale where she was purchased by Mill Valley Ventures. She was bred to Speightstown in his first year at stud and sold in foal at the 2005 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where Dark Hollow as agent purchased her for $320,000. The resulting foal was stakes-placed Chattertown.
Her second foal was stakes-winner That’s How I Roll, by Speightstown; and her third foal was graded stakes-placed Bluegrass Chatter, by Bluegrass Cat. She also sold in foal to Malibu Moon at the 2008 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale where Bluestone Equine Management bought her for $160,000. The resulting foal, Obruchev, was purchased by Koji Maeda for $140,000 at the 2010 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and became a stakes winner of $904,631 in Japan. Obruchev was her last foal.
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