Can Born To Be A Starr Make It 3 In A Row
Here I go again… hopping another red eye. Destination: Emerald Downs up in the Pacific Northwest’s very own
The COTC inaugural years began primarily as a dirt series for GSR’s top 2yos sired by 1st-year studs. Two years back, in 2004, we expanded to include the talented turf runners. The series began late in the year, so that 1st year of the turf did not include the Bloomsday Wish, thus last year was the inaugural running of the Bloomsday Wish over 5F turf. The Bloomsday Wish achieved its name after a dear friend of mine, Karen, was diagnosed w/pancreatic cancer. Her one wish was that she could run in
In 2005 the filly Tatletale went off at odds of 15/1. The longshot was perfectly positioned and thus got an awesome trip to run away with the fillies division of the Bloomsday Wish. She official set the race record time at 0:59 flat and won it by a margin of 1-1/4 lengths. (Unfortunately, that turned out to be her lone win thus far in her 15 race career.)
Upon my arrival at SeaTac I hitched a ride from a big yellow cab to the gates of Emerald Downs in
“GAHHHH!!!” The poor man sprung straight out of his chair making an obscene amount of ruckus. Gasping for breath I feel to the floor in shrill laughter. With tears streaming from my eyes I snuck a peek at the ghastly white man to see a not-too-amused frown on his face. I laughed harder. A snort came from the stall behind us followed by the appearance of a beautiful blood-bay head. The filly’s glistening eyes were wide-eyed as she tried to absorb the scene laid out in front of her. I stifled my laugh enough to get back up on my feet.
“This must be your trainee?” I asked, resisting the urge to break out in laughter again as Broohar shuffled towards me and the horse reluctantly.
“Yep. This is my baby-girl, Born To Be A Starr.”
“Well, she must be pretty talented for you to ship her all the way overseas specifically for this series.” I stated as I stroked the dainty white star hidden beneath her forelock. “I know that you almost decided to scratch the idea and stick to a stakes race last Saturday.”
“This is true. After seeking advice from my lovely wife I decided that Starr has what it takes to win the COTC this year… I really feel like she has that extra something special.” The trainer explained as he watched his filly gaze at something off in the distance.
“And how ‘bout them prizes offered up for the winners?”
Broohar’s eyes gleamed. “Yeah the prizes look great; you’ve outdone yourself yet again, Keely!
As far as my chances of winning go, I think she’s a certainty.”
“Is that right? Hmm… well then, how do you see this race playing out? I mean, you have some really fast speed in the fillies Abbojo Crown and Fabman’s dynamic duo Candlelabra and Strength N Numbers.”
“Pshh! Piece of sweet apple pie! Born To Be A Starr will blitz the turf fillies’ race, even though she drew terribly in gate 15! She has a good jockey on board and even at only RTG she’ll wipe the floor with the rest of those chumps!”
Boldly stated! “Wow, well, thanks a bunch, Broohar. I’ll let you get back to your napping; it was great talking to you. Good luck tomorrow!” I smiled as a slipped Starr a chunk of carrot.
I didn’t have to go to far before I ran into Blacksoxuk. Apparently he had reserved an entire shedrow for his string of 6 fillies: Abbojo Crown, Heavenly Test,
Abbojo Crown loomed a big dark bay filly in the back of her stall. She was contently taking an afternoon siesta. Looking over my notes if appears that this lady has posted the fastest speed figure out of all 75 of the COTC entries. She debuted on the dirt showing some good early speed out of the gate, but never settled in running up the track 10th. Wisely, Blacksoxuk switched his girl over to the turf. She loved it, cracking the gate and surging to a run away lead only to be caught in the last strides of the race. Last time out she again broke first making it loud and clear that she had a turn of foot like non-other. Her prior race, however, appeared to have taken more out of her than her backers had figured as she flattened out to finish 7th. A.C. is coming off of a nice 6 week breather and so will most likely be fresh for another sizzling pace-race.
Heavenly Test has been a picture of consistency running 2nd in 2 of her 3 lifetime starts. Her debut is the only race she’s finished out of the money in and that may as well be explained by the surface: dirt. A quick switch to the green stuff and Heavenly Test was making amazing strides to an honest career.
Bernabeau is another question mark. She, similar to Blacksoxuk’s other trainees, made her first track appearance on the dirt. And, like her stable mates, didn’t take too kindly to it. Surface change and voila she filly charged home and stole a piece of the purse. Could she get better off of her last one? I don’t see why not. I would consider it her true 2nd start, and we all know that many 2yos make a habit of performing even better in their 2nd starts. But she will have a lot of other quality speed horses to contend with.
The question mark of the group is the
Nou Camp is Blacksoxuk’s only winner amongst this group… it was an honest win, but not unusually impressive. Speed figure wise I would have to say that she won’t make much of a dent in this company. However, every horse does have its day, and with the closing style she has she could upset on Saturday.
Just across the way was Winterheart’s gang of 4: Skunk’s Holy Grail, The Creation, Eurotears, and Red Carpet Babylon. My notes said that this crew was the last to arrive as Winter had the least distance to travel and didn’t want to upset her fillies too much. They shipped in on Wednesday. All 4 hit the track early Thursday morning to stretch out their legs. None of these ladies have made a trip to the winner’s enclosure, but being it is still only May they are forgiven.
Skunk’s Holy Grail leads the pack with a handy 3rd in her lone career start. The big striding bay curiously poked her roman nose out her stall window to check out moi, the weirdo staring at her and her buddies. I slipped a sugar cube her way, and Skunk gratefully whiffed my hand. As I walked past her to check out the other girls she gently nudged my arm. Naturally, I gave her one more! J
As I turned back around to make my way to the next stall, the three amigos were jealously staring our way. Skunk nodded her head up and down and appeared to smile… Then she quietly disappeared back in the dim-lit stall.
The Creation is a flashy chestnut with a long blaze down her face. She had declared loud and clear that she did not appreciate a soft course one bit in her debut event. Her last outing she contested the early lead, but tired down the stretch. I really wish I had a chance to ask Winter a few questions about Creation. As it appears that the filly wants the lead, but looks like it may be wisest to try and rate her since she doesn’t appear to have the same turn of foot as the other speed demons. It’s just a little something for you bettors to pay attention to at the windows come Saturday.
The beautiful black head peering at me is Eurotears. She doesn’t have a single white marking on her body… but the few flecks of white on her nose telling me that she would shed out lighter as the years aged her. She is one of the lighter raced ones, having only one career start. She rated fairly close to the lead in that start, but still managed to close a little distance between her and the leader to finish a hard-working 3rd. She’s had plenty of rest since then. Her works have been great. She could be the dark-horse of the field (no pun intended)… you just never know with 2yos this early in the game.
Red Carpet
Hmm… now where? I think I’ll head over to Mr. Fabulous’ barn. Turning down back down the row another head suddenly appeared from what I had mistaken to be an empty stall. A copper colored head with a big round white circle on her forehead snorted at me as if to say, “how dare you not acknowledge me!” A quick glance at the filly’s halter plate and I soon found out that this was little Pumpkin. Pumpkindale, that is. The filly hadn’t made the final cut for the COTC, but she had wanted to run so badly that Winter decided she had to bring her along as well as to prevent a depressed horse.
“Hey girl,” I patted the velvety nose. “I ran out of treats.”
The crafty filly sniffed my pocket and snorted. I was caught red-handed. I pulled out a couple sugar cubes and Pumpkin devoured them. Greedy little thing.
“Hey, Keely, quite patronizing with the enemy!” a happy-go-lucky voice called out. I turned around to see the tall jockey Rbokie himself shoving a ho-ho in his mouth. He had made himself known as a premier
“Since you’re here, mind if I check out your fillies real quick?” I asked.
“Not a problem. They should have slept off their hang-overs by now.” I flashed him a quizzical look. “I’m only kidding! You think Karie would let me feed our horses beer?”
“Who knows with you and the crowd you run with… A.K.A. Mr. Fabulous and his trusty pal, Nextbonus.”
Rbokie laughed. “The girls are down this way.”
A few sheds down, Powerbomb and Perfectly Circular were awaiting the return on their trainer.
“Now that I look at my watch I see that I don’t have much time to left. So what can you tell me about these two? Powerbomb’s pedigree looks really great, and she was training beautifully… so what happened in her maiden race?”
Bokie mischievously smiled. “That wasn’t her debut… this will be her unveiling. I used that last one merely as a work for the COTC. So all those other trainers better beware because her jockey is instructed to go all out this time around! As for Perfectly Circular, I’m not really expecting too much out of her actually. She is bred for like 12F so she probably can’t get up in time for 5F… that is unless she takes the speed inherited from her DDS and disregards the her sire and DS. Besides, she’s a claimer for life.” Bokie joked.
“Thanks for the report, Bokie. Good luck on Saturday.”
“Cool.”
I chuckled as I walked on to find Fabman’s 2 charges. Just around the corner I found them: Candlelabra and Strength N Numbers. These two girls added to the complex speed duel that could form when the gates open on Saturday. It’s hard to separate the two. They eerily run the exact same way. Both have made one career start, their maiden race, in which they both wired their fields and won by the same margin and with the same speed figures. I wonder what Fabman will instruct the jockeys to do on Saturday? I’ll be curious to see.
Hawkz ponies were right next door: Wontaknow A Secret and Milledout. I don’t see Milledout performing with most of these ladies. However, her stable mate looks to have plenty of potential to pull the upset! Her last start was her first turf attempt and it was quiet impressive. Watch for her to devour the frontrunners coming down the stretch to snag a piece of the prize if not win.
Lastly to look at are Thats Amore, trained by Dundey, and Forty Ravens, trained by ts1442. Thats Amore is another speedster. I’m not sure if she is quick enough to gain the official early lead, however. You’ll probably find her within a length of the leader as they head into the first turn. And I feel that unless her jockey attempts to save something for the finish, she will be toast before they hit the last 100 yards.
Forty Ravens is the last of the select few fillies to have visited the winner’s circle. She knows how to get here. But can she be quick enough on her feet Saturday to make up lost ground after the unsightly speed duel that is destined to occur on the front end? Your guess is as good as mine.
Here are the horses in the somewhat zone of preference. My picks are bolded for top 3 finishers. Now you make your picks… Good luck too all of the runners. Anyone can run big and win.
Front-runners: Abbojo Crown, Bernabeau, Candlelabra, Strength N Numbers, The Creation, Thats Amore
Stalkers: Born To Be A Starr, Heavenly Test, Eurotears, Powerbomb, Perfectly Circular, Milledout
Closers: Nou Camp, Skunk’s Holy Grail, Wontaknow A Secret, Forty Ravens
Keely’s picks (AKA: “don’t pick them!”) J
1st: Born To Be A Starr—she’s a nice stalker who’s style seems to suit sprints brilliantly. This ought to let her get the first jump on the closers as they all round for home thus I think that will hand her the edge.
2nd: Candlelabra—she is probably the strongest front-runner of the bunch of 5 or 6 ladies. I gamble that she has enough stamina to see her to the finish and hold off Wontaknow A Secret.
3rd: Wontaknow A Secret—I believe she will make a very nice closing move after relishing the crazy pace on the front-end figured to be set by at least 4 of the fillies. The disadvantage for her is that she doesn’t have enough running ground to steal the win.
The top 10 horses move on to the 2nd leg: the Washington Apple going 6.5F on the turf for fillies only (5 weeks down the road).
*Pictures taken from www.bloodhorse . com