The Dirt Races Open and Close the Carreras de las Estrellas Show

This Saturday at Palermo, the Dirt Junior and the Dirt will bring together provincial juveniles and seasoned sprinters in two stakes that return after their successful debut in 2023

Pecadora Joy remains the leading contender in the Dirt, despite her recent dip in form / JUAN I. BOZZELLO

The Carreras de las Estrellas festival this Saturday at Palermo will kick off and wrap up with the two stakes races that debuted in the series in 2023. Opening the show, 2-year-olds with starts in Argentina’s interior circuits will face off in the Estrellas Dirt Junior (1300m, dirt), while closing out the program will be the Estrellas Dirt (1300m, dirt) for fillies and mares three and up. Both events will award 10,000,000 pesos to the winner.

In the Dirt Junior, a couple of names with official performances at La Punta, San Luis, stand out. The filly Opi Nails(Remote) arrives off a victory in the Clásico Estrellas Provincias Argentinas (L), where Neón Boy (Cosmic Trigger), winner of the Clásico Copa La Punta Junior, finished third at a respectful distance.

Boosted by a pair of wins in Tucumán, Chaplin (Nicholas) makes the trip seeking an upset, while from Córdoba comes Perro de la Noche (Perro Callejero), an easy winner in La Docta with a strong clocking. From Entre Ríos, there is optimism around Kandaki (Fortify), who brings top-class breeding.

The Estrellas Dirt, meanwhile, promises speed from start to finish, with Pecadora Joy (Fortify) seeking redemption after her surprising sixth-place finish in the Clásico Círculo de Propietarios de Caballerizas SPC (G3), hoping to return to the form that saw her take the Clásico Jamelao (L).

That day she edged Isolation (Suggestive Boy) by a head, and the latter comes off an impressive allowance win and will be looking to turn the tables on the favorite.

At this level, Joy Melódica (Fortify) is always dangerous, as when she won the Clásico Día de la Soberanía Nacionaland the Handicap El Centauro, and she was runner-up in this same race twelve months ago.

The blisteringly fast Byron Star (Equal Stripes) will try to take them all the way, while Estrella del Día (Il Campione) arrives off back-to-back wins, the most recent coming in the Clásico Maldivas at La Plata.