Country Star Wins Hollywood Starlet

2008 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Santa Anita Park

The 2008 Breeders' Cup, thoroughbred racing's most prestigious event, consisting of 14 Breeders' Cup races and $25.5 million in purses, will be held on October 24-25, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

But before that, Belmont Stakes winner Da'Tara is going to race in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course while Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown will be racing in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.

Posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007

Country Star lived up to her name as she finished with an impressive 2 3/4-length victory with jockey Rafael Bejarano in Saturday’s $431,500 Hollywood Starlet at Hollywood Park.

The even-money favorite of the public, the dark bay filly came into the Hollywood Starlet after winning the 1 1/6 mile Alcibiades by one length on Keeneland’s Polytrack in October. Country Star was even more impressive this time at the Hollywood Starlet as Rafael Bejarano had her comfortably placed in fifth in the field of nine 2-year-old fillies on the backstretch. She moved into contention while four-wide turning for home, gained the lead in mid-stretch and easily pulled clear.

Trained by Bobby Frankel, Country Star covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:40.54 and paid $4, $3 and $2.40. Grace and Power ridden by jockey Michael Baze returned $9.20 and $5.60. The Golden Noodle with jockey Julien Leparoux aboard paid $4.80 to show.

The performance of Country Star in the Hollywood Starlet stirred talk of next year’s Kentucky Oaks, but Rafael Bejarano said, “Oaks? She’s going to be the next Kentucky Derby winner.”

Other 2-year-old fillies that also ran in the Hollywood Starlet are Set Play, Foxy Danseur, Time Reveals All, Sunday Geisha, Grace Anatomy and Spritely.

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"Country Star Wins Hollywood Starlet" was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Hollywood Park, Horse Racing Industry, Horses, Stakes Races, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.