by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — It didn’t take but a minute for Steve Carter to realize what he had after he buckled up Cincinnati Star’s harness for the first time.

“She was a natural pretty much from the git-go,” recalled the Londonderry, Ohio, resident. “She had a very nice clean gait and is all trot.”

Carter purchased the daughter of Cincinnati Kid and Eastern Star Two on behalf of Peggy Carter, Sheila Hummel, Robert Reid, and Great American Stables for $19,000 at the 2010 Hoosier Select Sale. During her two-year career, the filly has assembled a record of 23-13-5-1, $421,210 in earnings and set her lifetime mark of 1:57.4 on July 14 in the $200,000 Indiana Sire Stake final at Hoosier Park.

Cincinnati Star commenced her career with a victory in the Converse Fair on June 9, 2011. Her next two starts on June 21 and June 27 were at the Shelbyville Fair and resulted in second and third place finishes. She captured her first start at Hoosier Park on June 30 in a $15,000 leg of the Fred Terry Series and was fifth in the $30,000 final on July 16, before reeling off nine straight triumphs. She tasted defeat by 3-1/2 lengths in the $200,000 Indiana Sire Stake final on October 22, in her last start of the season. The filly earned $285,810 from a 16-11-2-1 record and was named Indiana’s 2011 2-year-old filly Trotter of the Year.

Linscott Photography

Cincinnati Star lowered her mark to 1:57.4 in the Indiana Sire Stake final on July 14.

Cincinnati Star returned to work with a win in a $30,000 Indiana Sire Stake on May 17. From her five subsequent pari-mutuel engagements she amassed three seconds, a fourth and a fifth, until she hit the wire a comfortable conqueror with the fastest mile of her career five days ago. Regularly piloted by Trace Tetrick, the filly has made $135,400 in 2012, had her picture taken two times from seven starts and been right there for second on three occasions.

“When we first broke her, she was not very focused but now she grabs on hard,” said Carter, who owns part of Star Recruit, a member of the second elimination of this weekend’s Delvin Miller Adios at The Meadows. “She’s very focused now and went from one extreme to the other. She may have gotten a bit stronger this year, but she’s definitely more aggressive. She’s pulling, hyper and a lot harder on herself now. She has drawn badly a couple of times and did break once.”

The 45-year-old conditioner, who currently owns a .516 UTR for the year and has gathered more than $6 million in purse money as a trainer during his career, doesn’t really do much extra with Cincinnati Star to try to calm her down.

“Before we raced her last week, we drove her around the parking lot where the trailers were at Hoosier Park,” he said. “She’s pretty aggressive on the gate and her best trip is leaving it and letting her go along. Just like the other night (July 14), she left right out of the gate, grabbed the track and it controlled it her own way.”

Carter knows Cincinnati’s Star’s agenda for the rest of the year, but is unsure what is in store for 2013.

“We will just continue to race through the Indiana program for the rest of this year,” he said. “Then we will need to make a decision on whether to sell her or breed her. It’s one of the two. With her breeding we might keep her (as a broodmare), but we would race her next year at four.”