Eda gets chance to shine going two turns in Starlet
If stakes-winning sprinter Eda carries her speed two turns Saturday at Los Alamitos, her rivals in the Grade 1 Starlet might not have a prayer.
But five rival 2-year-old fillies showed up anyway, because Eda is no cinch to get a mile and sixteenth. The likely pacesetter and sharpest entrant in the $300,000 Starlet, Eda’s five career starts have all been sprints, including two dominating stakes wins. Can she run long?
“That’s always a question,” trainer Bob Baffert acknowledged. “Her last race was very professional. She’s improving, and the only way you’re going to find out is by doing it.”
In sprints, Eda is doing it with style. She enters the Starlet off a romp in the 6 1/2-furlong Desi Arnaz at Del Mar. To beat her in the Starlet, they have to catch her. Eda and new jockey Juan Hernandez are likely to set the pace. Meanwhile, Grade 1-winning stablemate Grace Adler is training like she can make amends for her last-start misfire.
Baffert is in a good spot with his three Starlet runners, which include longshot Benedict Canyon. Flavien Prat, however, can ride only one. He rode Eda in both recent wins; he rode Grace Adler to a romp in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante and a dull fifth as favorite last out in the Grade 2 Chandelier. Despite the loss, Prat sticks with Grace Adler.
“She’s coming back around,” Baffert said referring to Grace Adler. “I think she’s back to her old self. She’s doing well and she’s come back to train well.”
Grace Adler is the only graded winner in the Starlet, a race Baffert has won the past four years.
The six-runner Starlet includes turf stakes winner Cairo Memories and stakes-placed Desert Dawn, who both finished off the board in Breeders’ Cup races. Cairo Memoires finished ninth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, Desert Dawn finished last of six in the Juvenile Fillies. The Starlet field also includes Tonito’s, distant runner-up behind Eda last out.
While the distance of the Starlet presents a challenge for Eda, her recent performances are outstanding. In addition to back-to-back stakes wins, she is the only entrant who has earned Beyer Figures above 80, which she did in three of her last four. Her only subpar effort was a fifth-place finish as a pace casualty in the Del Mar Debutante.
Meanwhile, the form of Eda’s main rivals is less certain. Grace Adler, Cairo Memories, and Desert Dawn enter the Starlet following off-the-board finishes. None was more puzzling than Grace Adler’s, who followed a romp in the seven-furlong Debutante with a flop in the mile-and-sixteenth Chandelier at Santa Anita. She finished fifth at odds-on.
Baffert believes two factors contributed to her misfire – discomfort with the footing and regression (bounce) after the Debutante. “When I came back from Del Mar, the [Santa Anita] track was deep and hard to get through,” he said. “Her works [before the Chandelier] were just okay. And maybe the race at Del Mar took a little off of her.”
Following the Chandelier debacle, Baffert ruled out the BC Juvenile Fillies and waited for Grace Adler to come around. The past month at Santa Anita, she did just that. She enters the Starlet with solid works, and as a daughter of Curlin should relish two turns.
Cairo Memories and Desert Dawn are tougher to read. Cairo Memories is a turf filly switching to dirt. Desert Dawn regressed in the Breeders’ Cup.
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Bob Hess Jr. trains Cairo Memories, who won her debut and a stakes race before being led to the wolves in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. She was compromised early. She broke flat-footed and got shuffled, lost ground throughout, yet missed by less than three lengths.
Cairo Memories subsequently shipped to a nearby layup facility for hyperbaric treatment, and Hess believes she is better now than before the Breeders’ Cup. “Her hair has more color, her eye is more vibrant, and her weight actually went forward,” he said.
That does not answer the question of footing. “She has high knee action, and she’s a little light in the hip, which are characteristics of turf horses,” Hess admitted. “But Kent [Desormeaux] is emphatic that she’ll run equally well on dirt. Normally, he’s right.”
Desert Dawn was never going to beat Echo Zulu in the Juvenile Fillies, but she did not have a good trip. Uncomfortable while pinned inside, she chased from midpack and surrendered into the far turn.
“She wasn’t overly taxed in that race,” trainer Phil D’Amato said. “I just don’t think she was comfortable, and kind of just called it a day. She wants to get into her stride and come with a big, wide move.”
Mike Smith takes over on Saturday.
The Starlet is the eighth race Saturday on a nine-race card.