Varda Rallies to Win Starlet; Princess Noor Pulled Up
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Varda wins the Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos Race Course
Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert continued his supremacy in the $300,500 Starlet Stakes (G1) at Los Alamitos Race Course Dec. 5, running 1-2 with Varda and Kalypso—though he couldn't fully appreciate the outcome after his other starter, 3-5 favorite Princess Noor, was pulled up.
The Zedan Racing Stables-owned Princess Noor had taken command from Kalypso midway on the second turn, moving effortlessly under Victor Espinoza, before the veteran rider abruptly slowed her and took to the outside in the stretch due to an injury to her left front leg. She left the track in the horse ambulance after walking into it under her own power.
"We got her back to the barn. She looks better. She X-rayed clean," Baffert said via telephone an hour after the Starlet. "It looks like she might have hit herself above the ankle—there's a tendon area that looks like some swelling there. We're just going to monitor her for a few days, see if she did any damage there."
With Princess Noor suddenly out of the race, Kalypso, the initial pacesetter, inherited the lead, but she could not contain her onrushing stablemate. Baoma Corporation's Varda, last of five coming into the lane, rallied past the field under Drayden Van Dyke for a 1 1/2-length victory.
It was the fourth consecutive win in the Starlet for both Van Dyke and Baffert, a seven-time Starlet winner. Charles and Susan Chu's Baoma Corporation also won the Starlet for the second straight year after Bast in 2019.
A 2-year-old daughter of Distorted Humor , Varda raced 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:44.53, which followed fractions of :22.91, :46.43, and 1:10.15. The winner returned $37.80, dismissed by bettors after a distant second behind Princess Noor in the Chandelier Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park Sept. 26. That race followed a first-out maiden victory at Del Mar.
"She always tries hard,'' Van Dyke said of the winner. "She broke well and we just waited. She needed every bit of that long stretch.''
Runner-up Kalypso finished four lengths ahead of Nasreddine, who managed to show despite trying to go wide into the first of Los Alamitos' sharp turns.
Desi Arnaz Stakes winner Astute, the 6-5 second choice, disappointed with a fourth after breaking flat-footed and stalking the pace inside.
The Starlet awarded points on a 10-4-2-1 scale toward the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs.
Baffert said he "got a pit in (his) stomach" when Princess Noor was pulled up and couldn't appreciate his stable's 1-2 finish. But after fears of a threatening sesamoid injury had subsided, he praised his other two fillies.
Varda "is a filly that's been (training) really well, and we knew distance was her friend," he said. "(Kalypso) ran a good race. She was out there, going pretty fast."
Bred in New York by Masters 2013 and Distorted Humor Syndicate, Varda is one of five winners from the winning Sky Mesa mare She'll Be Right and her dam's first stakes winner. She'll Be Right has also produced grade 3-placed Big Family (by Any Given Saturday) and stakes-placed Getouttamyway (by Cross Traffic ).
Varda was a $700,000 purchase by bloodstock agent Donato Lanni for her owners from the Niall Brennan Stables consignment at this year's Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. She was bought previously for $100,000 by Raven Bloodstock from the consignment of Paramount Sales to the Fasig-Tipton New York Bred Yearlings Sale.