Stacelita Earns Turf Female Championship

Stacelita didn’t win a Breeders’ Cup World Championship event in 2011, but her two grade I triumphs including one over Eclipse Award finalist Dubawi Heights in the Beverly D. Stakes (gr. IT) and a solid third-place finish against males in the United Nations Stakes (gr. IT) were enough for her to be voted champion female turf runner.

Raced in 2011 by Martin Schwartz, the daughter of Monsun—Soignee, by Dashing Blade, won the championship decisively with 158 first-place votes out of 248 cast. There were many contenders who finished up the track including Perfect Shirl (28 first-place votes), Never Retreat (25), Dubawi Heights (17), Summer Soiree (4), Aruna (3), Winter Memories (3), Goldikova (2), and Cambina, Cozi Rosie, Sarah Lynx, Star Billing, and Together all with one first-place vote apiece. Three voters abstentained.

A champion at 3 in her native France in 2009, Stacelita (Monsun—Soignee, by Dashing Blade) arrived in North America in mid 2011. Campaigned by Schwartz, she contested the July 2 United Nations shortly after her arrival, finishing a length in back of Teaks North, with the previous year’s winner, Chinchon, in between.

Following the Aug. 13 Beverly D., which Stacelita won by 1 1⁄4 lengths, she captured Belmont Park’s Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes (gr. IT) Oct. 1 over Distorted Legacy. The same afternoon Dubawi Heights picked up her second grade I turf win of the year when she took the Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita.

The two distaffers squared off in a field of 11 in the Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT) at Churchill Downs Nov. 4 but proved no match for Lady Shirl. Dubawi Heights finished sixth, and Stacelita, the 9-5 favorite, ended up 10th. The victory, Perfect Shirl’s only victory of the year, was enough for Perfect Shirl also to become an Eclipse Award finalist.

Stacelita’s effort in the Filly & Mare Turf was compromised because of an eye injury.

“In the Flower Bowl, she got hit with a turf clod, and it developed into a fungal infection,” said Stacelita’s trainer, Chad Brown.

Six-year-old Stacelita, who was bred by Jean Pierre Joseph Debois, is no longer owned by Schwartz. She was purchased privately by Japanese breeder/owner Teruya Yoshida after the Breeders’ Cup. Boarded at Frank and Mattie Justice’s Dell Ridge Farm near Lexington, Stacelita is booked to Smart Strike.