Sister Peacock Earns First Stakes Win in Star Shoot
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Photo: Michael Burns
Sister Peacock wins the Star Shoot Stakes at Woodbine
Sister Peacock and jockey Jesse Campbell led gate-to-wire in the $100,000 Star Shoot Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Woodbine April 21, boosting her record to three wins from five starts. Her only two losses were both runner-up finishes.
Owned by Brent and Russell McLellan and trainer Stuart Simon, the Kentucky-bred daughter of Real Solution was a 1 1/4-length winner in the six-furlong feature, giving her sire his first stakes winner.
Sister Peacock set fractions of :22.97 and :45.99 then kept her closest pursuer, Missmizz, at bay en route to victory in 1:09.53. Power Gal finished third off a ground-saving trip and Intanga Rose was fourth, edging out Si Si Tequila, who challenged three-wide turning for home before drifting out in the stretch.
"Hats off to this athlete. Stuart did a great job getting her ready. Thanks to the connections," said an emotional Campbell, joined by his 5-year-old daughter and family at the races for the Easter weekend. "Stuart's a great horse trainer and they took her down south and she's developed.
"He phoned me last week when she worked and he said she worked good. I said, 'No Stuart, she didn't work good, she worked real good.' She was well prepared. She got a little warm in post, but she was a professional when she saw the gate. She stood very quiet—she was standing really well—so I didn't move her and she left there and it was on. She's a very smart and talented filly, and Stuart and the crew do a great job. I'm just blessed."
After opening her sophomore campaign with a pair of runner-up efforts in a pair of one-mile turf stakes at Gulfstream Park over the winter, Sister Peacock was back to her winning ways over Woodbine's all-weather surface, where she is undefeated.
"I think she'll get a mile fine," Simon noted. "She may like getting a mile around one turn a little better, but she kind of breaks fast and then she kind of almost rates herself—she does drop off the bit—so I think getting longer won't be a big problem. But she's fast so it's hard to not run her where the fast races are too."