Impressive debut winner Faiza set for Grade 1 Starlet

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Faiza, an extremely impressive debut winner Nov. 12 at Del Mar, will be supplemented for $10,000 to the Grade I, $300,000-guaranteed Starlet Saturday at Los Alamitos.

The Starlet, which is for fillies at 1 1/16 miles, is the first of four stakes events for 2-year-olds to be run during the six-day Winter Thoroughbred meet. Opening day is Friday, Dec. 9. First post each racing day (Dec. 9-11 and 16-18) is 12:30 p.m.

Owned by Michael Lund Petersen, who won the 2015 Los Alamitos Futurity with Mor Spirit, and trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Faiza, a daughter of Girvin and the Smart Strike mare Sweet Pistol, won by 3 ½ lengths and covered six furlongs in 1:09.28. She was a $725,000 purchase earlier this year at the Fasig-Tipton Mid Atlantic sale.

Baffert, who has won the Starlet five times in a row – Dream Tree (2017), Chasing Yesterday (2018), Bast (2019), Varda (2020) and Eda last year – may also start Doinitthehardway. Owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, Doinitthehardway, a daughter of Street Sense, is a three-start maiden who has a pair of seconds and a third on her resume.

The main event for Sunday, Dec. 11 is the Soviet Problem Stakes. Nominees to the one-mile race for fillies bred or sired in California include Big Celebration, Cast Member, Grazed My Heart, Loyal to a Fault, Nyvan, Smiling Lady and Uncontrollable.
Entries for the Starlet will be taken Wednesday, Dec. 7 while the Soviet Problem will be drawn Thursday, Dec. 8.