Chestnut fillies have a reputation for being hot, and if her performance in the eliminations for the upcoming $672,000 Shes A Great Lady for two-year-old distaff pacers is any indication, Racing Star is hot stuff, indeed.
A daughter of Four Starzzz Shark, out of the Life Sign mare In For Life, Racing Star is a homebred from the White Birch Farm of Allentown, New Jersey, and made her first foray north of the border last week, when she defeated Bob McIntosh trainee, West of L A, to win her $35,000 elim in a new lifetime best of 1:53.3.
"She's definitely a bit of a handful," trainer Jeff Stafford confirmed to the Woodbine Entertainment Group media office. "She's a very high-strung filly, she's got that red gene. Four Starzzz Shark has been throwing a few red ones.
"She's always acted like she had a lot of talent, it's just a matter of keeping her head screwed on straight. Fortunately, she's been a different horse up here [in Ontario]. She's much better behaved than she is at home.
Stafford explained that his crew has a whole routine to keep Racing Star quiet.
"She walks before she jogs, you have to keep her all the way to the outside of the racetrack … it's no good fighting with her, you've got to negotiate.
"She carries her head way up high. We tried to crank her head down but she just gets mad. She flipped her palate in the elim for the Sweetheart (at the Meadowlands, July 24) so she wears a choke plate and a tie-down, which looks kind of stupid, but for now it's what works on her.
Stafford said that the filly is good-gaited and never wears boots. He also said that before she's done her career on the track he believes she will be a high-speed horse. Although Stafford confirmed that the horse is hot off the track, he said that the filly minds her manners on track while at the races.
Stafford says the decision to enter Racing Star in the Shes A Great Lady was a last-minute one. "She was already entered at Pocono and we ended up doing a judge's scratch when the owners decided to give her a shot up here." Stafford was already heading to Mohawk with veteran pacer Darlins Delight for the Breeders Crown. Stafford's decision proved to be a good one.
"She's been training good and eating good since we got up here, so everything's a go at this point," Stafford says, who expects to take Racing Star home to New Jersey for a rest after the Shes A Great Lady, then return for the Three Diamonds in October.
(With files from WEG)