Star Billing against a solid field bring home the Matriarch crown
George Krikorian’s 3-year-old filly, Star Billing, against the likes of Summer Soiree, Gypsy’s Warning and Never Retreat which could turn the race on the head on any given day, took all of them by surprise to post her first grade 1 race of her career in
the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park’s turf course over at a mile on 25 November, 2011.
Facing a top class field is never easy for a local horse, and Star Billing was up against a good field of East Coast shippers as she rallied past all of them to post a grand upset after she was sent off as the 10 to 1 choice in the $250,000 Matriarch Stakes.
John Shirreffs trained Kentucky bred daughter of Dynaformer, out of mare Topliner by Thunder Gulch, Star Billing probably would’ve been waiting for Summer Soiree, to meet her in another race and take her revenge when Summer Soiree edged past Star Billing
in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks at Del Mar on 20 August, 2011.
Over at 1 1/8 Star Billing finished an agonizingly close second to Summer Soiree on that day as Nereid finished third. Winning the Matriarch Stakes with half a length, Star Billing successfully reversed the order of the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks and brought home
John Shirreffs first Matriarch crown home.
Star Billing was making her seventh start in the Matriarch Stakes, and the future looks bright for the filly. The California based filly fired home in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes at Hollywood Park on 7 May. She managed to hit the board thrice in three California
Stakes with two at Hollywood Park.
Second in the Grade 2 Honeymoon Stakes, third in the Grade 1 American Oaks and the third one at Del Mar where she finished second again in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, but at Keeneland she misfired with an uncharacteristic sixth in the Grade 1 QE II Challenge
Cup.
Star Billing didn’t handle the turf well that day, but even after her disappointing run at Keeneland, John Shirreffs was thinking about the Matriarch Stakes.
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