NEWS

Stardom Bound seeks return to form in El Encino

Posted: Thursday, January 14, 2010 6:39 PM

STARDOM BOUND

Benoit & Associates photo

by Steve Bailey

Champion Stardom Bound will seek a return to form when she takes on 12 challengers in the $150,000 El Encino Stakes (G2) on Sunday at Santa Anita Park, where she is unbeaten in four starts.

The four-year-old Tapit filly won the final three races of her juvenile season, including the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) for owner Charles Cono before being purchased by a partnership that includes IEAH Stables prior to her three-year-old debut.

Stardom Bound opened the 2009 season with victories in the Las Virgenes Stakes (G1) and the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) before disappointing finishes in the Ashland (G1) and Gazelle (G1) Stakes for trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.

Another year older and more mature, she will try to return to her winning ways on a track where she has never been beaten.

“We knew she was going south on us when we got her in the spring,” IEAH President Michael Iavarone said. “She was just not sending us the right signals. Sometimes horses just don’t progress physically from age two to three. But she’s really grown up in her time off, especially physically.”

Stardom Bound will carry top weight of 122 pounds in the 1 1/16-mile El Encino on the Arcadia, California, track’s Pro-Ride synthetic surface, seven pounds more many of her opponents.

Grade 1 winner Dream Empress will try to snap a five-start winless skid since capturing the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) in October 2008 at Keeneland Race Course.

The four-year-old Bernstein filly was winless in three starts last year and enters off a third-place finish in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming race on December 28 at Santa Anita.

Justwhistledixie was a hot commodity as a three-year-old and was expected to challenge Rachel Alexandra in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) in May. Injuries forced her to miss the Oaks and derailed much of her season, although she did win three of her five starts and finished second twice.

The four-year-old Dixie Union filly enters off a second-place finish in the Top Flight Handicap (G2) on November 27 at Aqueduct.

Stakes winner Best Lass captured a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming race on November 7 prior to a fourth-place finish in the Falls City Handicap (G2), both at Churchill Downs, in her most recent outing. Pretty Unusual and Will O Way each have won stakes in California during the previous year but will try to halt four- and fistart winless skids, respectively, in the El Encino.

Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times

El Encino S.