Alluring Star to miss Starlet Stakes with fever

CYPRESS, Calif. – Alluring Star, second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4 at Del Mar, will miss the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

“I’m not going to run her,” trainer Bob Baffert said Wednesday. “She came up with a temperature.”

Alluring Star would have been favored in the $300,000 Starlet Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles. She won her debut at Del Mar in a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs Sept. 3 and was second in her stakes debut in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes on Sept. 30 at Santa Anita.

In the BC Juvenile Fillies, Alluring Star led by two lengths with a furlong remaining and finished 3 1/2 lengths behind Caledonia Road.

Alluring Star was not the only expected runner for the Starlet to be taken out of consideration. Miss Mo Mentum, winner of an allowance race Nov. 16 at Churchill Downs, was not shipped from Kentucky this week, trainer Mark Casse said.

Casse said the cost of shipping and a $10,000 supplemental entry fee were too prohibitive. Miss Mo Mentum will be pointed to Saturday’s $75,000 Hut Hut Stakes at a mile at Gulfstream Park.

Their absences leave the Baffert-trained Dream Tree and the maiden winner War Heroine as two leading contenders. Dream Tree is unbeaten in two starts, including a nose win in the Desi Arnaz Stakes at seven furlongs Nov. 18 at Del Mar.

War Heroine won her debut in a maiden race by 6 1/2 lengths Nov. 12 at Del Mar and has worked well in recent weeks.

Other probable starters are Piedi Bianchi, who was fifth in the BC Juvenile Fillies; Yesterday’s News, who was second in an optional claimer on turf Nov. 5 at Del Mar; and Exuberance, a maiden winner Oct. 13 at Santa Anita.

Saturday’s Grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity will have a small field.

Greyvitos, who won his maiden in the Grade 3 Bob Hope Stakes at seven furlongs while making his stakes debut, will not start in the $300,000 Futurity and will be pointed to the $400,000 Springboard Mile on Dec. 17 at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

Trainer Adam Kitchingman said the presence of two prominent Baffert-trained runners in the Futurity – maiden winner McKinzie and Solomini, who was second in the BC Juvenile on Nov. 4 – contributed to the decision.

“I imagine it’s a little easier not to go against McKinzie and Solomini,” he said. “The owner did not want to go to the CashCall.”

Greyvitos is owned by Triple B Farms.

Aside from the Baffert-trained runners, the Futurity is expected to include Instilled Regard, winner of a maiden race Oct. 29 at Santa Anita, and Runaway Ghost, who won his stakes debut in the Golden Nugget at six furlongs by 7 1/2 lengths Nov. 11 at Golden Gate Fields.