Starlet Stakes (Grade 1)

THE Starlet Stakes for two-year-old fillies run at Los Alamitos was the sole stakes race of last weekend stateside.

It was won for a record ninth time by Bob Baffert with the Girvin filly Faiza who had to survive a stewards inquiry after her head success over Pride Of The Nile after the mile-and-a-16th contest. They were over five lengths clear of the third.

Owned by Michael Lund Petersen, Faiza was bought for $725,000 at Fasig-Tipton last May. Her head victory gave Bob Baffert a sixth win in a row in the race.

“It just means a lot to me to win this race at many times. It just shows the clientele that I have,” Baffert said.

The inquiry involved bumping at the head of the stretch, both first and second appeared to make contact with pacesetter Doinitthehardway, but she faded to fourth, well behind the one-two

“She travelled well the entire way. She switched leads at the head of the stretch, and there was a little bumping, but I really didn’t feel anything,” said jockey Flavien Prat.

The winner raced three wide around both turns when stalking the pace in third for much of the race, as Doinitthehardway set splits of 23.36sec and 47.87secs.

Doinitthehardway suffered in the bumping at the head of the straight, from Pride Of The Nile on her inside, who had drifted out after making an inside turn rally and then brushing from Faiza who drifted inwards.

Pride Of The Nile refused to give way when passed in early stretch. A half-length back at the furlong pole, she cut that margin over the final furlong under urging from jockey Juan Hernandez, but was a head behind at the wire in a final time of 1m 44.49secs.

“She has always shown she’s a special filly, and she had to be special today to win just off one maiden race,” Baffert reported. “She’s still green, but I think she has a big future in front of her but we’ve loved her from the start, and she’s by one of the hottest sires going right now.’’

Faiza is a daughter of Girvin, by Tale Of Ekati, and was bred by Brereton Jones, became the first top-level stakes winner for her sire who won the Louisana Derby and the Grade 1 Haskell in 2017 for Joe Sharp.

IN the aftermath of trainer Jason Servis entering a guilty plea in New York federal court on December 9th to charges of doping horses under his care with misbranded performance-enhancing drugs, the colt’s part owners at the time Gary West and his wife Mary, said in a statement repported by BloodHorse that they would support the decision if Saudi Cup decides to redistribute the winner’s prize money.

About a month after Servis was arrested in March 2020, Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia officials froze the $10 million winner’s share of the race, saying they could not reach a fair and reasonable decision on the outcome until the case against Servis was settled. American filly Midnight Bisou was second in the race and would benefit from the decision.

West and his wife, Mary, part owners with Coolmore team of Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, issued a statement saying: “We believe in the justice system and have patiently waited for the legal prosecution to take its course.

Now that Jason Servis has entered a guilty plea, we want to make it clear that if the Saudi Cup decides to redistribute the purse, we would support that decision.”

Servis is facing a prison sentence of up to four years at his May 2023 sentencing.

Maximum Security won the Saudi Cup on February 29th, 2020, just nine days before Servis was among an original group of 27 defendants charged with the doping of racehorses.

Also included in the arrests was Jorge Navarro, the seven-time leading trainer at Monmouth Park, who pleaded guilty last year and is currently serving a five-year prison sentence.