'TDN Rising Star' Pacific Heat (Unusual Heat) climbs up the class ladder to contest a wide-open renewal of the GI Starlet S. at Los Alamitos Saturday. The California-bred thrashed restricted company by 13 1/2 lengths on debut here Sept. 25, and added the Golden State Juvenile Fillies S. over seven panels at Del Mar Oct. 29. This will be her first two-turn attempt, and first try against open company, but she's done nothing wrong yet and was flattered when Patriotic Diamond (Hat Trick {Jpn})–third in her stakes win–came back to take an optional claimer by daylight Nov. 26.
Bob Baffert has two chances at a fourth Starlet score, including one with a full-sister to a previous Starlet winner. Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and Edward McGehee's Treasuring (Smart Strike) is a full to Streaming, who won the Starlet two years ago when it was still contested at Hollywood Park. She is out of Teeming (Storm Cat), a daughter of blue hen Better Than Honour. Treasuring broke her maiden third out on the cut back here Sept. 19. She was most recently second in Del Mar's seven-panel Desi Arnaz S. Nov. 15, finishing a nose in front of Street Fancy (Street Sense) and further ahead of Surfside Tiara (Scat Daddy) and Pretty N Cool (Scat Daddy).
Pretty N Cool, fifth of five as the 3-5 chalk in that affair, is also trained by Baffert. A sharp debut victoress in the Del Mar slop in July, she added that venue's GII Sorrento S. a month later before finishing a distant second to champion elect Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro) in the GI Del Mar Debutante in September. The grey shipped across the country to defeat 'TDN Rising Star' and next-out stakes winner Constellation (Bellamy Road) in Belmont's GII Matron S. Oct. 18, but had no obvious excuse for her lackluster performance last time after looking like a winner turning for home.
Fellow Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer also has a pair of entrants. Stays in Vegas (City Zip) returns to dirt and represents a similar ownership group to that of ill-fated champion Shared Belief (Candy Ride {Arg}). An easy winner of her first two tries on the Northern California fair circuit, the chestnut was fifth behind stablemate Songbird in the Del Mar Debutante. She switched to the sod successfully for Santa Anita's Oct. 10 Surfer Girl S., besting a group that included Lucky Folie (Distorted Humor), who took the aforementioned Desi Arnaz over four Starlet entrants. Stays in Vegas was last seen adding Golden Gate's grassy Pike Place Dancer S. over Kiss N Scat (Scat Daddy), who gave Hollendorfer his 3000th victory with a 13-length romp on Thanksgiving back in the Bay Area. The other Hollendorfer trainee, Surfside Tiara, took Santa Anita's Anoakia S. sprinting two back Nov. 15.
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