This Friday comes the Grade I Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos: the final top-rung race for the two-year-old fillies.  This week at Picks and Ponderings, I took a dive into the race.  The race drew a field of just seven, but a tough seven it is: it features a combination of familiar Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies runners, as well as other up-and-coming west coast runners.

My preview of the Starlet is not the only race Picks and Ponderings visits this week.  Paul Mazur visits Gulfstream for the Sugar Swirl Stakes (GIII), and also puts this week’s pair of juvenile stakes for Illinois-breds at Hawthorne under the microscope.  My own analysis of the Jim Edgar Illinois Futurity and the Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante will come later this week, as the subject of this weekend’s edition of Chicago Railbird.