Looks like Stardom Bound will try the boys
Stardom Bound, impressive winner of today's $300,000 Grade I Las Virgenes Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, appears to be Santa Anita Derby-bound against the colts.
Michael Iavarone, co-owner of Big Brown who owns about 75 percent of Stardom Bound following a $5.7 million purchase in November, thinks the filly is good enough to beat the boys in Arcadia, and if all goes well she'll likely head to the Kentucky Derby on May 2.
"That's always your long-range goal when you have a good 3-year-old," Iavarone said in the winner's circle. "We bought her with the intention of trying to get her to the Derby if she deserved to be there but always using the Kentucky Oaks as a backup. I think if she wins a race like the Santa Anita Derby, she has to go. I think she's earned her way into the race."
I don't know if Stardom Bound is good enough to beat the boys, but I like the fact that Iavarone is not afraid to roll the dice and give it a shot. It's good for the sport, and she might just develop into the type of filly who can win the Kentucky Derby. Remember, Winning Colors, the last filly to win the Santa Anita Derby and Kentucky Derby in 1988, didn't even win the Las Virgenes. She finished second to a very good filly, Goodbye Halo. It wasn't until Winning Colors' powerful victory in the Santa Anita Oaks that trainer D. Wayne Lukas ran her in the Santa Anita Derby and then at Churchill Downs.
What do you think? Is Stardom Bound good enough to pull another Winning Colors? They are two totally different types of fillies. Whereas Winning Colors could go to the front and blow her opponents away, Stardom Bound is a come-from-behind filly with a powerful closing kick. It's the type of style that can get derailed in a large Derby field.
If she was your filly, would you have Stardom Bound on the road to Kentucky?
Art,
I would have Stardom Bound on the road to Louisville - for the first Friday in May.
Stardom Bound is a nice filly, but she's no Rags to Riches or Winning Colors - at least those two beat some filies in their careers.
We have an extremely WEAK group of 3YO fillies here on the west coast this year - let's hope Iavarone comes to his senses and keeps her where she belongs.
I would tend to agree with you. Right now, I've seen nothing that makes me believe Stardom Bound belongs in the Derby against the boys. She's a very, very nice filly. Don't get me wrong, but until she steps it up more, I'd be running her in the Santa Anita Oaks and Kentucky Oaks. I get the feeling, just from the way he talks, that Bobby Frankel, who is the trainer of record while the filly campaigns in the West, feels the same way. I think it's Michael Iavarone who is pushing for the Santa Anita Derby and then the big Derby in May.
Of course, if she runs great in the Santa Anita Oaks, like Winning Colors did, then you can go to Kentucky and take on the boys. Winning Colors didn't even win the Las Virgenes like Stardom Bound did Saturday -- she was second to Goodbye Halo -- but she really stepped it up in the Santa Anita Oaks and earned a start in the Santa Anita Derby, where she just annihilated the boys. It will be interesting to keep an eye on this story. One thing about Iavarone -- he keeps things interesting.
Lavarone has already started spinning the rhetoric and we all know how well these connections handled Big Brown leading into the Belmont Stakes with his torn hoof. Let's hope that trainer Bobby Frankel can do what Dick Dutrow couldn't and will put a stop to the nonsense and keep a muzzle on Lavarone and his entourage of supports and bodyguards that follow him around like a rapstar.
My prediction is you'll see this filly run in the Santa Anita Derby facing an average field of six over the disintegrating proride surface. Sure, she may win or run competively and then be shipped back to Kentucky to run against the boys in a full field of 20 or so. She'll run up the track and then off to the breeding shed perhaps having a booking with Big Brown.
Campaigning fillies to run against males is lunacy and will only hurt this filly in the long run.
Ing,
Iavarone said Saturday in the winner's circle that plans now call for Stardom Bound to race as a 4-year-old. We'll see, though. He also mentioned the fact that his group still owns a significant portion of Big Brown's breeding rights and they have 19 mares to breed with Big Brown this year. They also are looking to breed Stardom Bound with Big Brown in the next few years. Iavarone told reporters that Big Brown's career as a stallion begins in about two weeks. He joked, "I want to be Big Brown."