HOLLYWOOD PARK: I BELIEVE IN YOU WINS THE STARLET.

Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer

INGLEWOOD - Jockey Alex Solis didn't get many instructions from trainer Paul McGee before the Hollywood Starlet. The way Solis was going Sunday, he didn't need any.

Solis' winning ride aboard I Believe in You in Hollywood Park's major race for 2-year-old fillies was his fourth of the afternoon and sixth of the weekend, lifting him to second place in the track's jockey standings with a week left in the meet.

``Alex was in the zone today,'' said McGee, a Kentucky-based trainer.

Solis won with four consecutive mounts, beginning with Savior ($6.60), River God ($10.20) and Satin Cat ($4.80). He and I Believe in You went into the $341,750 Starlet as the 5-1 third choices on the tote board behind Cindy's Hero and Jetin Excess.

I Believe in You, a daughter of 1992 older-horses champion Pleasant Tap, was making her first start in California after breaking her maiden on the third try at Churchill Downs.

``I knew absolutely nothing about her going into the race, except that she could run,'' Solis said. ``They told me before the race that she had a little speed, but not to use her, just to stay right behind the speed, that she likes to wait a little bit.

``That's all they told me. I had to go out there and improvise.''

Solis settled I Believe in You on the right flank of early leader Jetin Excess, an undefeated sprinter trying 1 1/16 miles for the first time. Cindy's Hero, the only graded stakes winner in the field of six, was back in fifth.

``She was in a good position all the way around, and when I asked her (to run), she responded real gamely,'' Solis said.

I Believe in You ($12) wrestled the lead away from Jetin Excess in midstretch and won by a neck in 1:43 2/5. Whoopddoo finished a length back in third, with Cindy's Hero another length back in fourth.

It was the most competitive Starlet in some time. Recent runnings produced an 11-length win by Love Lock, an eight-length win by Excellent Meeting and a seven-length win by Surfside.

``That (close second) is something for a filly with no experience going two turns,'' said Pico Perdomo, trainer of Jetin Excess.

Gary Stevens, who rode Cindy's Hero, said the favorite ``was just not responding at all.''

The victory was the first in California for McGee, 38-year-old brother-in-law of local trainer Ron Ellis.

McGee shipped I Believe in You west to avoid a conflict with a 2-year- old filly named Miss Pickums, not to mention the frozen Kentucky tracks. Both horses are owned by the father-mother-daughter team of Jan, Mace and Samantha Siegel of Beverly Hills.

Samantha Siegel found both fillies at a 1999 auction in Timonium, Md.

``She had a quality about her that said she had a brain in her head,'' Samantha said. ``She was in a big field, with horses going crazy all around her, and she just stood there. She had an air about her.''

The Siegels wound up bidding $315,000 for I Believe in You, the most they've spent in nearly a quarter-century in thoroughbred racing.

With jockeys Francisco Torres and Edgar Prado wearing the Siegels' blue and green silks, I Believe in You finished third and second at Turfway Park and Keeneland in Kentucky before winning for the first time Nov. 23.

I Believe in You helped Solis cap the second four-bagger by a jockey at the six-week-old Hollywood Park fall meet. Fellow Panamanian Laffit Pincay won four Dec. 3.

Pincay won twice Sunday. He and Solis, with 25 victories each, are tied for second with 25 victories behind Victor Espinoza's 29. Five racing days remain in the fall meet, which ends with an 11:30 a.m. program on Christmas Eve. Santa Anita opens its winter season Dec. 26.

--Notes: Cute story told by Samantha Siegel about how Miss Pickums got her name: ``Miss Pickums was actually my nickname when I was little. I was a really picky eater. They had to do a lot of creative things to get me to eat.'' . . . Chris McCarron said he'll go on vacation for the final week. . . . Gary Stevens' victories Saturday with Point Given in the Hollywood Futurity and Keemoon in the Waya Handicap were Corey Black's first stakes wins in his new career as a jockey's agent. Black retired as a rider in November and began booking mounts for Stevens. Black gave credit to Harry ``The Hat'' Hacek for putting Stevens on Point Given before the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and said the old and new agents would split their percentage of the purse.