Minit to Stardom Adds Flash to Louisiana Champions Day

Grade 2 winner Minit to Stardom will look to close a strong 4-year-old season when she faces an expected seven other Louisiana-bred fillies and mares in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint Stakes Dec. 14 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

A homebred for Evelyn Benoit's Brittlyn Stable, Minit to Stardom delivered a front-end upset victory in this year's Honorable Miss Handicap (G2) at Saratoga Race Course, the highlight of a season during which the daughter of five-time Louisiana Champions Day winner Star Guitar  has won four of seven starts—finishing second in her other three races—and earned $278,140. 

The Ladies Sprint is one of seven stakes for Louisiana-bred Thoroughbreds on the Fair Grounds card, topped by the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic Stakes. The seven races will award $750,000.

Minit to Stardom's 20-1 upset win in the Honorable Miss is etched in Benoit's memory. 

"Going to Saratoga and winning that race was a lifelong dream," Benoit said. "I could not have asked for more. To show up with a homebred from here in Louisiana and face that competition and walk away with a win, it was the biggest dream come true.

"It was me and my husband's (the late Maurice) dream," she continued. "The greatest high you could ever have. As a breeder in Louisiana for so many years, and having owned the stallion Star Guitar and praying that he could prove that he was a world-class stallion, and getting his opportunity to prove it with Minit to Stardom, and having her win that race on what happened to be my birthday, you couldn't have written it up any better."

Minit to Stardom is the 8-5 favorite in the six-furlong test, but she'll have to defeat Ours to Run, who posted a five-length win over Minit to Stardom in last year's race. That was part of a six-race winning streak—all stakes—for Colonel Thoroughbreds' Ours to Run, a 5-year-old daughter of Half Ours  who has earned $504,488. Ours to Run also finished a close third in this year's Honorable Miss, a head behind Chalon.

In Saturday's other stakes races:

• Off a 6 1/2-length debut win over state-bred fillies, Corinne and Bill Heiligbrodt's Vacherie Girl is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the Louisiana Champions Day Lassie Stakes for juvenile fillies. The daughter of Tapiture  is trained by Steve Asmussen.
• Class-wise, Three Diamonds Farm's Chimney Rock stands tall over his eight foes for trainer Mike Maker in the Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile Stakes. The 2-year-old son of Artie Schiller exits a near-miss second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2T) Nov. 1 at Santa Anita Park.
• Magic Vow, who won last year's Louisiana Champions Day Turf Stakes when wet weather forced a move to the main track, is back for this year's about 1 1/16-mile turf test. The favorite is Kendel Standlee homebred In the Navy, a 5-year-old Midshipman  gelding who in his past five starts—all stakes—has a win and two runner-up finishes.
• Mallory Greiner's Underpressure, will look to defend his 2018 title when the 5-year-old Birdstone  gelding starts from the rail in the Louisiana Champions Day Classic Stakes. Besides his 3 1/2-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile test for 3-year-olds and older last year, Underpressure boasts four other stakes wins against Louisiana-breds.
• With a pair of allowance-level wins against other state-breds at Fair Grounds, Baronne Farms' Is Too is the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Turf Stakes. A 4-year-old daughter of Midshipman, Is Too will look to secure her third stakes win of the season.
• Former claimer Monte Man will try to improve on his third-place finish in last year's Louisiana Champions Day Sprint Stakes when he starts in this year's six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and older. A 6-year-old Custom for Carlos  gelding, Monte Man has earned $500,911.

Champions Day is marked on the calendar of every Louisiana breeder.

"I try my best to promote our Louisiana breeding program," Benoit said. "Champions Day at Fair Grounds is our day as Louisiana breeders to showcase our horses. I remember the first Champions Day, I had a horse I had bought for $500, and I got beaten a nose. It was so thrilling that day, and I can honestly say it's still just as thrilling now. It doesn't matter what type of horse, whether $500 or a $500,000 purchase, it's just as hard to win a horse race, and that's what makes it so exciting."

Entries: Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint S.

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, December 14, 2019, Race 7

• STK
• 6f
• Dirt
• $100,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 2:54 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Play Unified (LA)	Florent Geroux	118	Ron Faucheux	10/1
2	2Midnight Fantasy (LA)	Adam Beschizza	116	Joe Sharp	7/2
3	3Minit to Stardom (LA)	Alex Cintron	124	Jose M. Camejo	8/5
4	4Ours to Run (LA)	Gabriel Saez	122	J. Larry Jones	2/1
5	5Diamond Crazy (LA)	Miguel Mena	116	Dallas Stewart	12/1
6	6Diamond Cutter (LA)	Robby Albarado	118	Dwight J. Viator	20/1
7	7Tenpins Tempo (LA)	Colby J. Hernandez	118	Lee Thomas	15/1
8	8Tiz the Faith (LA)	Diego Saenz	118	Anthony Arey	20/1

Entries: Louisiana Champions Day Classic S.

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, December 14, 2019, Race 10

• STK
• 1 1/8m
• Dirt
• $150,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 4:21 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Underpressure (LA)	Corey J. Lanerie	122	Chris Richard	5/2
2	2Make Me Smile (LA)	Colby J. Hernandez	115	Keith G. Bourgeois	12/1
3	3Mageez (LA)	Gabriel Saez	118	Delmar R. Caldwell	4/1
4	4Trevilion (LA)	Diego Saenz	121	Victor Arceneaux	7/2
5	5Grande Basin (LA)	Miguel Mena	118	Edward J. Johnston	6/1
6	6Pound for Pound (LA)	Aubrie Green	118	Andrea Ancil Ali	10/1
7	7Star Fitzstall (LA)	Alex Cintron	115	Jose M. Camejo	6/1
8	8Bistraya (LA)	Adam Beschizza	118	Keith G. Bourgeois	10/1