Starfish Bay headed to Goodwood

Starfish Bay, the Todd Pletcher-trained filly who set a Monmouth Park track record for about 5 1/2 furlongs on June 13, will leave New York on Sunday night for her date in the five-furlong, $152,000 King George Stakes at Goodwood on Thursday. The 4-year-old daughter of Elusive Quality worked four furlongs in 48.88, breezing, on the Belmont training track on Thursday morning in preparation for Goodwood, which lies a few miles outside of Chichester near the south coast of England.

Newly upgraded to Group 2 status this year, the King George is a straight race run over an undulating turf course. Among its 23 nominees are Group 1 sprint winners Fleeting Spirit and Borderlescott. Starfish Bay, who sped 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:00.76 when winning Monmouth’s Candy Eclair Stakes one month after taking the five-furlong The Very One Stakes at Pimlico, will be the first American-trained horse to run at Goodwood as well as being Pletcher’s first runner in Europe. She will be ridden by Frankie Dettori.

“We have been thinking about sending over horses to Europe, and this filly seemed a suitable candidate, so we decided to take a shot with her,” said Michael Hernon, director of sales for her owners at Gainesway Thoroughbreds. “She will run for Todd at Goodwood and then we will evaluate where to go with her. She is in very good form at the moment and she is a very quick filly. We are hopeful she will give a very good account of herself.”

The King George Stakes is one of three group races scheduled on the third day of the prestigious five-day Glorious Goodwood Meeting. There is precedent for an American-owned filly winning the race, as the Irish-bred Enticing, owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stable and trained in England by William Haggas, won the 2008 renewal.

* The Aidan O’Brien-trained Steinbeck could be making the reverse trip from Starfish Bay. One of four Coolmore nominees to the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on July 31, Steinbeck was 2 1/2 lengths second to Famous Name in the Group 3 Meld Stakes at the Jim Dandy distance of 1 1/8 miles on turf at Leopardstown on Thursday.

“We’re looking at sending him for the Jim Dandy,” O’Brien told the Racing Post on Friday. A decision to actually send him to Saratoga must be made by Sunday.