Scarlet Strike favourite for the Sharp Cat Stakes at Hollywood Park
Owned and trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, the 2-year-old filly, Scarlet Strike would have had an uphill struggle, had her trainer/owner ran her in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies without any Lasix over a speed favouring track at Santa Anita Park, but rather sending her demanding of her too much too early, the horseman decided to skip a few and wait for some other fall races to continue her career.
A maiden breaker at third asking, Scarlet Strike will now return as the favourite at Betfair Hollywood Park in the ungraded $100,000 Sharp Cat Stakes.
“We think she’s an improving horse that is going to do better as the distances get longer,” Hollendorfer said.
The ban over Lasix for 2-year-olds in the Breeders’ Cup was the primary reason for sitting Scarlet Strike out of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies according to Hollendorfer, but she had already run a big one at the same track five weeks before when she finished second in the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes.
Over a distance of 1 1/16 miles, jockey Joe Talamo guided the Smart Strike filly second to winner, Executiveprivilege, who downed the distance in 1 minute and 44.95 seconds.
Though, she has been out of racing, but she has been working continuously at Hollywood during that period, and rider Joe Talamo has been aboard her, and he think that her rivals in the Sharp Cat Stakes will be no pushovers.
“We made an early-bird nomination to [the Starlet], hoping she would be able to run in that race,” Hollendorfer said.
Bred in Kentucky, Scarlet Strike is out of mare Scarlet Tango by French Deputy, and the filly started her racing career at Betfair Hollywood Park, where she made her debut in a 5 furlong sprint but finished third.
She then tried her luck at Del Mar’s synthetic surface, and failed again to break her maiden, when she finished second to, Switch to the Lead on 29 July, 2012, over a distance of 6 furlongs.
Her maiden win came over a distance of 1 mile, when she downed Majestic Minister in second and Vixen in third on 2 September, 2012.
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