Baffert To Saddle Three Of Six In Saturday’s Starlet

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will have three opportunities to win the Grade 1, $300,000 Starlet – the final Grade 1 of 2021 for 2-year-old fillies – for a fifth consecutive year Saturday at Los Alamitos.

The race at 1 1/16 miles is being offered locally for the eighth time after 33 renewals as the Hollywood Starlet (1981-2013) at Hollywood Park.

Post time is 12:30 p.m. The Starlet is the eighth of nine races and has an approximate post time of 3:58 p.m.

Baffert, whose streak of Starlet victories includes Dream Tree (2017), Chasing Yesterday (2018), Bast (2019) and Varda last year, entered Grace Adler, Eda, and Benedict Canyon in 2021.

Owned by Willow Grace Farm and Michael Lund Petersen, Grace Adler will be seeking the second Grade I success of her young career. The daughter of Curlin and the Newfoundland mare Our Khrysty dominated seven opponents by 11 ¼ lengths in the Del Mar Debutante Sept. 5.

The victory followed a debut win as the 2-5 favorite July 31. She has been idle since disappointing as the 9-10 choice in the Grade 2 Chandelier Oct. 1 at Santa Anita. She's banked $226,000.

Eda, a Munnings filly out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Show Me, is the most accomplished of the Baffert trio in terms of wins. She's 3-for-5 with a bankroll of $190,000.

Owned by Baoma Corporation, Eda enters off consecutive victories, taking the Anoakia Oct. 24 and the Desi Arnaz Nov. 13. The Starlet will mark her first start beyond seven furlongs.

Owned by Little Red Feather Racing, Benedict Canyon has one win in three starts and was third in her two defeats. The daughter of Midnight Lute and the Medallist mare Bennie M defeated maidens Sept. 5 at Del Mar before finishing a distant third in the Anoakia. The earner of $59,880 has yet to try more than six furlongs.

Trained by Bob Hess, Jr. for David A. Bernsen LLC and Schroeder Farm LLC, Cairo Memories will be making her dirt debut after winning two of three on grass, including the Surfer Girl at one mile Oct. 3.

A Cairo Prince filly out of the Indian Charlie mare Incarnate Memories, Cairo Memories suffered her lone defeat when ninth of 14 in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf Nov. 5. She has earned $172,000.

Runner-up behind Eda in the Arnaz, Tonito's will stretch out for the first time for Anderson Farms, E R J Racing LLC, Reddam Racing LLC, John Fielding and Ryan Lloyd and trainer Doug O'Neill.

A Blame filly out of the Street Cry mare Cry Value. Tonito's rallied from well off the pace to win her debut on turf Oct. 23 prior to the Arnaz. She's banked $56,600.

Trainer Phil D'Amato, who won the 2015 Starlet with Street Fancy, will be represented by Desert Dawn.

Owned by breeder H and E Ranch, Inc., the daughter of Cupid and the Honour and Glory mare Ashley's Glory is the only member of the cast with a two-turn win on dirt. The Arizona bred graduated by 4 ¼ lengths when stretched to eight furlongs in her second start Aug. 26.

She's 1-for-4 with earnings of $114,00. In her most recent appearance, Desert Dawn finished last of six in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 5.

From inside out, the field for the Starlet Stakes:

  1. Tonito's, Mario Gutierrez rides, 120 pounds
  2. Grace Adler, Flavien Prat, 120
  3. Benedict Canyon, Edwin Maldonado, 120
  4. Cairo Memories, Kent Desormeaux, 120
  5. Desert Dawn, Mike Smith, 120
  6. Eda, Juan Hernandez, 120

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‘Older, Wiser And Hopefully A Little Better’: Desormeaux, Hess Back Together For Breeders’ Cup

In 1991, Robert B. Hess, Jr., won the first of back-to-back Del Mar training titles. In 1992, Hess' championship cohort was jockey Kent Desormeaux, who would score his first of back-to-back riding titles and rack up 135 wins in the two-year span.

A lot has happened in the 30 years since.

Desormeaux, 51, has notched victories in three Kentucky Derbies, three Preakness and a Belmont Stakes. He has six Breeders' Cup wins, three Eclipse Awards and has held membership in racing's Hall of Fame since 2004. With two wins Sunday at Santa Anita, Equibase statistics show him with 6,101 career victories from 32,413 mounts in a 35-year career.

Hess, 56, has gone nationwide with strings in Kentucky and Florida. But the native of Chula Vista has remained headquartered in Southern California and unabashedly citing Del Mar as holding a special place in his heart.

“Del Mar is my paradise,” Hess said Sunday. It is, after all, the place that provided him with his first winner (Palapiano, July 31, 1987), first training title in 1991 and first graded stakes winner (River Special, 1992 Del Mar Futurity).

And as they have over the years, Desormeaux and Hess are hoping to make headlines again when they team up with Cairo Memories in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Chaos Theory in the Turf Sprint during Breeders' Cup weekend.

“I've got gray hair and he's got a couple of wrinkles, but hopefully we're older, wiser and hopefully a little better,” Hess said. “But we have the A-team back together and we're looking forward to it.”

Cairo Memories, a daughter of Cairo Prince, was pre-entered in the Juvenile Fillies and Juvenile Fillies Turf and will go in the $1 million, one mile grass event. She is 2-for-2 in a career begun at Del Mar on Sept. 5 and comes in off a win in the Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 3.

“Cairo is splendid, a wonderful, gifted filly and just a pleasure to be around,” Hess said. “Unless the jock screws it up (with a wink toward Desormeaux), I think we'll get the money.”

Chaos Theory, like Cairo Memories owned by David Bernsen and partners, is a 6-year-old gelded son of Curlin. He has six wins in 18 starts with earnings of $359,454. Chaos Theory is 0-for-5 in 2021 but won both his career starts at Del Mar – the Green Flash in August and an optional claimer in November of 2020. Desormeaux was aboard for the first time in a third-place finish in the Eddie D Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 1.

Chaos Theory is one of 19 pre-entered in the $1 million, five-furlong event.

“Chaos, if he gets in, will run fantastic,” Hess said. “I've tweaked a few things, Kent knows him even better and it will be at his favorite distance on his favorite turf course.”

Desormeaux has one other Breeders' Cup mount lined up, Oviatt Class in the $2 million TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile for his trainer/brother Keith.

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Art Collector Headlines Full Slate Of BC Contenders Working At Del Mar

Bruce Lunsford's Art Collector, who figures to be one of the leading candidates for Saturday's $6 million Grade 1 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, worked a half-mile in :48.40 Sunday morning to highlight a work tab that featured 20 pre-entrants to the World Championships slated for Friday and Saturday at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif.

Art Collector was one of three horses to work for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Neil Poznansky was aboard the trio that included Casa Creed (Mile) going 4f in :47.60 and War Like Goddess (Filly & Mare Turf) going a half-mile in :48.20.

“They were all useful works, nothing blazing fast,” said Mott, who has won 10 Breeders' Cup races. “I never have a problem working good grass horses on dirt and this track looks safe and very forgiving.”

Trainer Rudy Rodriguez was aboard Bella Sofia as she covered a half-mile in :48.40 in preparation for the Filly & Mare Sprint.

“She's a happy girl and she loves to just go about her business,” Rodriguez said of Bella Sofia who has won four of five career starts and features daylight victories in the Grade 1 Test and Grade 2 Gallant Bloom in her past two outings. “She handled the track well and was very comfortable on it.”

In all, 14 pre-entrants worked on the fast main track and six more were on the firm Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen worked four of his six pre-entrants headlined by probable Qatar Racing Sprint favorite Jackie's Warrior who covered 3f in :36.80. Also working half-miles for Asmussen were Clairiere (Longines Distaff) in :49.20, Echo Zulu (NetJets Juvenile Fillies) in :50.40 and Silver State (Dirt Mile) in :48.60.

Other dirt workers included C Z Rocket (Qatar Racing Sprint) going 3f in :35.80, Commander (Turf Sprint also-eligible) a half-mile in :48.80, Giant Game (TVG Juvenile presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance) a half-mile in :48.60, and the Richard Mandella-trained duo of Dogtag (Maker's Mark Filly & Mare Turf) and Bombard (Turf Sprint also-eligible) working 5f in :58.20 and :58.40, respectively, in company.

Idol worked 5f in company in 1:02.40 but after the work trainer Richard Baltas notified Breeders' Cup officials that he did not feel Idol was 100 percent and withdrew him from the Classic.

Two other horses were withdrawn from Breeders' Cup consideration by their connections Sunday morning: Flagstaff from the Qatar Racing Sprint and Reina de Mollendo (ARG) from the Maker's Mark Filly & Mare Turf.

Highlighting the six pack of grass workers were two California standouts in Mo Forza and Going to Vegas.

Mo Forza, a two-time winner of the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile, worked a half-mile in :49.40 for the FanDuel Mile presented by PDJF for trainer Peter Miller. Shortly after Mo Forza finished his work, Going to Vegas worked a half-mile in :49.20 for Baltas in preparation for the Maker's Mark Filly & Mare Turf.

Also working on the turf were Time to Party (Juvenile Turf Sprint) going 3f in :38.20, Charmaine's Mia (Turf Sprint) going a half-mile in :50.20, Extravagant Kid (Turf Sprint) a half-mile in :49.40 in company with Zofelle (IRE), and Cairo Memories (Juvenile Fillies Turf) going 5f in 1:04.40.

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Cairo Memories Moving Forward Toward Breeders’ Cup With Surfer Girl Triumph

A close third heading into the far turn, the Bob Hess Jr. conditioned Cairo Memories set sail for home leaving the quarter pole and was never threatened through the lane en route to a 2 ¼-length score in Sunday's $200,000 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.  Ridden by Kent Desormeaux, the 2-year-old filly by Cairo Prince got one mile on turf in 1:34.27 and will now likely start in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 5 at Del Mar.

“She's been doing everything right,” said Hess.  “We were encouraged by the way she broke her maiden and she's been moving forward in her training.  Hopefully, this sets us up for the Breeders' Cup dance.”

A 4 ½-length one mile maiden turf winner in her debut Sept. 5, Cairo Memories was the second choice in a field of 11 at 4-1 and paid $10.00, $4.60 and $3.00.

“She brought some new energy from her first start,” said Desormeaux.  “I think she was excited.  I spent more time in the post parade calming her down…I worked her at Del Mar and before I ever rode her I thought she was great…I was with the owners in the paddock and that was the longest wait because I wanted to see how deep the water was, and she's shown (now) that she could really swim.”

Owned by David Bernsen, LLC and Schroeder Farms, LLC, Cairo Memories, who is out of the Indian Charlie mare Incarnate Memories, picked up $120,000 for the win, hiking her earnings to $162,000.

The 3-2 favorite with Flavien Prat, Irish-bred Helens Well rallied from next to last to finish second by a neck over Hemmerle and paid $3.00 and $2.40.

Off at 12-1 with Joe Bravo, Hemmerle was out-run late to finish third by a neck over Irish-bred Sterling Crest and paid $5.40 to show.

Fractions on the race were 22.14, 45.72, 1:10 flat and 1:22.26.

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