Pharoah’s half-sister becomes Tapit’s 25th Grade 1 winner in Starlet

Chasing Yesterday now 4-for-5 lifetime

Chasing Yesterday, a 2-year-old Tapit half-sister to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, gamely won the Dec. 8 Starlet Stakes (G1) at Los Alamitos to become her sire’s 25th Grade 1 winner.

Chasing Yesterday and jockey Drayden Van Dyke trailed a tightly bunched field early and gradually improved their position. The chestnut filly made a four-wide move around the far turn and dug deep in the stretch to run down Enaya Alrabb by a head, with Grade 1-placed stakes winner Mother Mother a neck back in third.

The final time for the 1 1/16 miles was 1:42.59.

Chasing Yesterday improved her career record to four wins in five starts. She was named a “TDN Rising Star” after her July 28 Del Mar debut before an unplaced effort in the Sept. 1 Spinaway Stakes (G1) at Saratoga. Chasing Yesterday then reeled off two stakes victories – the Oct. 14 Anoakia at Santa Anita and Nov. 12 Desi Arnaz at Del Mar – before capturing her first Grade 1 in the Starlet.

Bob Baffert trains Chasing Yesterday for owner-breeder Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind Equine, which purchased Chasing Yesterday’s dam Littleprincessemma (by Yankee Gentleman) for $2.1 million at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November sale. In 2015, the year Littleprincessemma’s son American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, Summer Wind bred the mare to three-time leading sire Tapit for the mating that produced Chasing Yesterday.