(Edited Santa Anita release)
Star Inside makes his United States debut in Saturday’s $100,000 La Puente Stakes at Santa Anita. Trainer Jack Carava expects the Irish-bred son of Key of Luck to perform better in the afternoon than he has in the morning.
“We’ve had him about four months, but he’s just trained OK,” Carava said. “He hasn’t shown a whole lot in the mornings, but we’re hoping he’s a little more horse in the afternoons. His race record speaks for itself. He came over with high expectations and he’s one of those horses who doesn’t have a lot of conditions for 3-year-olds, so the La Puente is a race where we kind of had to start him and see what happens. We would have liked to start in an allowance race, but that’s tough to find for a 3-year-old right now.”
Star Inside, a bay gelding with three wins from six starts and a top Timeform rating of 96, is owned by Carava’s principal, Ron Valenta, who races as La Can LLC.
The field for the 27th running of the La Puente, which will go as race seven on a 10-race program and be televised live on HRTV:
1--Vauquelin, Aaron Gryder, 116
2--Streets Ahead, Jose Valdivia Jr., 123
3--Golden Balls, Brice Blanc, 118
4--Shem, Victor Espinoza, 116
5--Star Inside, Michael Baze, 118
6--Vaunt, Alex Solis, 118
7--Desert Code, Richard Migliore, 118.