Hollywood Starlet Results: Pure Fun Wins For Fun

Pure Fun closed like a freight train down the center of the Hollywood Park cushion track to storm to a dominating victory in the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet Stakes over pace setter Blonde Fog and third place finisher Scarlet Strike.

Heavy favorite Executiveprivlige tracked early leaders in the third position down the backstretch but had absolutely nothing in the tank when it came time to run towards the judge, finishing a well-beaten fourth. Coming off a tough race where she finished second to Beholder in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Executiveprivilige looked like a filly that could use a little time on the shelf to re-charge her batteries.

The failure of Executiveprivilege to win the Starlet probably hands the Eclipse Award for Champion 2YO Filly to Beholder.

Some serious money found it's way into the show pool prior to the Starlet, most of it bet on the heavily favored Exectuiveprivilege. Her failure to finish in the top three triggered some nice $2 show payouts.

With regards to the winner, Pure Fun is a two-year-old daughter of Pure Prize out of a Key to the Mint mare, Chelsea Green, trained by Ken McPeek and ridden by Garret Gomez.

Earlier on the Betfair Hollywood card, Lady of Fifty pulled away from the pack to win the Grade 1 Bayakoa Handicap over a tightly bunched pack of fillies and mares. Open Water finished second and Inglorious rounded out the trifecta.

Class Included, the horse of the meet at Emerald Downs this past summer, suffered through what can only be described as an abysmal trip. Jockey Kevin Krigger, a former riding champion at Emerald several years ago, didn't give Class Included one of his better rides which made the filly's tough trip even tougher. How bad was Class Included's trip? Check out the really-don't-do-it-justice trip notes from the chart:

CLASS INCLUDED a bit crowded at the start, angled in and pulled inside and steadied off heels leaving the first turn, saved ground stalking the pace, moved up some into the stretch, was blocked inside through the drive and was out-finished.

Class Included was certainly up against it when she ran against one of the best fields on Breeders' Cup weekend, the Ladies' Classic. And she didn't get a whole lot of help when she suffered trouble heading into the first turn at Santa Anita on that Friday afternoon. I'm sure trainer Jim Penny was hoping for a smoother trip around the Hollywood main track in her comeback race but instead his filly saw her degree of difficulty multiplied.

I'd love to see Class Included get a decent trip one of these days because I really believe she's talented enough to win a graded stakes race.

Below are the payouts for the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet.