Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
CLASS ON GRASS
STELA STAR HAS PROVEN GROUP FORM FROM EUROPE,
Stakes programs usually are at full speed by late spring, but everything changed this year. As a result, the Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes on Saturday at Santa Anita lands in a unique position – the unofficial start of the California season for 3-year-old grass fillies.
Better late than never for Honeymoon favorite Stela Star and eight others.
“Here we are in June, and it’ll be her second start,” Stela Star’s trainer John Sadler said. “Under normal circumstances, it would have been different.”
Not a complaint, just acknowledgement. Turf fillies would have to wait. Santa Anita canceled two Grade 3s – the Providencia and Senorita. Additionally, Keeneland postponed the Grade 2 Appalachian from April to July; the Grade 2 Edgewood at Churchill Downs has been nixed, for now.
The upside is a solid field to open the graded stakes season. Stela Star, a Group 3 winner in Ireland and runner-up in an outstanding U.S. debut in March, is favored to win the 1 1/8-mile Honeymoon. The race sets up for her.
The pace should be legit. Parkour, a need-the-lead allowance filly in top form, faces front-running stakes winner Laura’s Light, the second choice in the program. Closers include Croughavouke, K P Dreamin, Fashion Royalty, Little Bird, and Red Lark. The field also includes longshot Guitty, who just might be good enough to spring an upset.
The race goes through Stela Star, who made her reputation overseas. Sadler and Hronis Racing were on the lookout.
“She’s a Group 3 winner in Ireland at 2, and those are pretty hard to get,” Sadler said. “So, when she came up [for sale], we snatched her up.”
Stela Star utilized speed to win 2 of 4 in Ireland, but when she made her U.S. debut March 7 in the $100,000 China Doll Stakes at one mile, she did what many European imports do. Stela Star blew the break and got rank.
She raced far off the pace, rallied six wide into the lane, uncorked a final quarter in 23.36 seconds, and missed by a half-length to the rail-skimming winner. Stela Star was best.
“She looped the field. It was pretty impressive,” Sadler said, and video replay supports the opinion.
Flavien Prat takes over on Stela Star, the 2-1 favorite by track linemaker Jon White. Sadler believes Stela Star benefits by the additional furlong.
Mile and one-eighth turf races at Santa Anita generally are kind to closers – 70 percent since early January were won from the back of the field. That is one reason to consider Guitty. Another reason is her most recent start – sixth while just two lengths behind Stela Star – indicates that Guitty is finally learning how to run.
Guitty arrived last summer from France and won her first two U.S. starts in maiden and allowance races. Guitty hinted at stakes potential for trainer Leonard Powell, but she was a handful.
She repeatedly broke slowly, became rank, and fought her rider. Guitty did not progress, so Powell had a project on his hands.
“We worked with her a lot in the morning, getting her to settle and relax,” he said. “And the last race, for the first time, she settled very nicely.”
Brice Blanc rode Guitty for the first time in the China Doll, and she ran like a different filly. Guitty settled, she did not pull, waited longer than planned on the far turn, finished well, and galloped out super.
“She’s got a long, sweeping move, and you need to get her in the clear,” Powell said. “She settled very nicely for” Blanc.
Guitty is 8-1 and a legit threat from off the pace.
Parkour is speed. Last out in a turf mile allowance, she raced gate to wire after a blazing halfmile in 45.20. It was the fastest half of the meet, pre-closure, for a turf mile; she won by more than three lengths.
“We choked ’em with our smoke,” trainer Richard Mandella cracked. “She ran well that way at Del Mar, and we kind of went back to what worked.”
Parkour, 2 for 5, needed 25.46 seconds for her final quarter under Mike Smith, who rides her Saturday.
“She needs to get a little more professional,” Mandella acknowledged. “But in the meantime, she’s got raw talent.”
Parkour is the one to catch.