Ancient Secret Back in New York for Pebbles

After a noncompetitive run in the Ontario Colleen Stakes (Can-IIIT) in her first trip out of town, Alpha Delta Stables' Ancient Secret will return to her home turf Oct. 15 in the $200,000 Pebbles Stakes at Belmont Park.

Entering the Ontario Colleen, the Chad Brown-trained daughter of Kantharos   was undefeated in four starts, with all of her wins on New York turf—including back-to-back stakes scores in the June 19 Wild Apple at Belmont and the July 22 Lake George (gr. IIT) at Saratoga Race Course.

BALAN: Ancient Secret Scores in Lake George

But in the Sept. 24 Ontario Colleen at Woodbine, Ancient Secret was never really involved and finished seventh, 12 3/4 lengths behind winner Caren.

"I just assume she didn't ship well," Brown said of the New York-bred. "She was flat in the post parade and in the race, and clearly was not herself. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good decision by me to send her up there."

Brown was encouraged by Ancient Secret's condition, however, when she arrived back in New York and registered a half-mile breeze (:49.09) on the Belmont grass Oct. 8. That work convinced him to run her back on relatively short rest.

"We decided to wheel her back, because once I got her back home, she looked fine," Brown said. "The race didn't take anything out of her, which I would expect, because she didn't really do any running."

The trainer said the one-mile Pebbles likely will be Ancient Secret's final start of 2016, but he did not rule out shipping her outside of New York in 2017.

"I think she can do both," Brown said of her ability to win at home and on the road. "She's very competitive and it's hard to do what she did, against open company, before she shipped to Woodbine. This will probably be her last start of the year and then we'll put her away and plan for 2017."

The only other graded winner in the field is Amerman Racing's Baciami Piccola, who won the Florida Oaks (gr. IIIT) March 12 but hasn't finished better than fifth in five starts since.

BALAN: Baciami Piccola Rallies to Florida Oaks Win

Multiple horses are coming into the Pebbles on win streaks. Ultra Brat, Wild About Harry, and Insta Erma have all won their last two starts.

Alex Campbell Jr.'s homebred Ultra Brat, an Uncle Mo   filly trained by Graham Motion, won the Christiecat Stakes at Belmont last time out Sept. 9.