Pure Fun to start on the Kentucky Oaks road after Starlet victory
Among a real good field in the Grade 1, $500,000 Hollywood Starlet, Pure Fun was thought of a runner who is there to make the field and take whatever she can from the experience, especially when the likes of Executiveprivilege is in the lineup. It was expected
that the second placed in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and undefeated in 5 starts prior to it, will easily take the race, but boy we were wrong.
The 2-year-old filly by Pure Prize, Pure Fun, started her racing career this year in June, and in a maiden claimer, she was beaten fifth, all ends up, and now she is ending the season with the win in the Hollywood Starlet Stakes, which gives her the elite
status of a grade 1 winner, and a major playing in next year’s Kentucky Oaks.
In the Hollywood Starlet, Pure Fun was nothing less than impressive, as she closed in from last in a field of eight juvenile fillies under jockey Garrett Gomez, and defeated another impressive filly, Blonde Fog - who had beaten maidens recently - by a length.
However, the two-time grade 1 winner, Executiveprivilege, had won the Starlet, could have gained support for the 2-year-old champion title, but she faded and finished fourth after being sent as the 2 to 1 favourite.
Trained by Kenneth McPeek for Magdalena Racing, Pure Fun was far from a grade 1 candidate, especially after seeing her finish seventh in the Grade 3 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland on 11 October.
She was second in an allowance race over Keeneland’s turf course to winner I O Ireland, but finally won at Churchill Downs, a 1 mile long Allowance Optional Claimer on 24 November. She defeated Dancinginthecircle by 9 ¼ lengths and got the $20,000 supplement
for the Hollywood Starlet.
“We ran her short early in the year and then we stretched her out on the turf,” McPeek said. “We didn’t have any dirt races to choose from. When we put her on the dirt her numbers were better.”
The Starlet victory earned Pure Fun 10 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks.
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