Ageless Getting Chance Over Downhill Course

When trainer Arnaud Delacour began planning a West Coast foray for his ultra-consistent turf sprinter Ageless, he found two prime spots on the same Santa Anita Park card.



One was the $100,000 Senator Ken Maddy Stakes (gr. IIIT); the other the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (gr. IT), both Nov. 1 races at 6 1/2 furlongs over the downhill turf course.



While there was no question about the 5-year-old mare's status for the Ken Maddy, drawing the 13 post, she was on the also-eligible list for the Turf Sprint, drawing into the body of the field when Free as a Bird scratched after refusing to board a plane in Kentucky.



Owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson's Lael Stables, most famous for racing Barbaro, Ageless has won or placed in 14 of 16 starts including eight wins and earnings of $408,154.



Trained alternatively throughout her career by Delacour and his wife, Leigh, Ageless comes into the Breeders' Cup off three wins and two placings in stakes. After winning the Giant's Causeway at Keeneland and The Very One at Pimlico Race Course, Ageless scored her first graded race in the Royal North Can-IIIT) in course record-equaling time over the Woodbine lawn of 1:07.39 for six furlongs.

Most recently, she finished third,  1 1/2 lengths back, in the Presque Isle Masters (gr. II) and second in Keeneland's Buffalo Trace Franklin County.



In six starts this year, Ageless has campaigned at five different tracks.



"She is already a grade III winner and grade II-placed so we thought we would try her on this level," Delacour said from Barn 96 at Santa Anita. "It is an ambitious task but she is doing very well. We always wanted to try her at 6 1/2 down the hill because it would give us more options (on where to run her). If she liked the 6 1/2 down the hill it would give us more flexibility next year.



"It's only a question of whether she can perform over it and we won't know until it happens."



Delacour said he wasn't too concerned about which race the mare was going to participate in, noting that she just wanted the opportunity to try her over the 6 1/2-furlong hillside course.



"I wasn't too stressed out about it because she was also entered in the Ken Maddy on the undercard," the former assistant to Christophe Clement said. "The schedule was the same. I did not modify our schedule."



Delacour hopes the Turf Sprint is contested with a hot early pace, noting that his mare fares better when comes from off the pace.



"She's very consistent and she's got a nice turn of foot when she doesn't do too much early in the race," Delacour said. "When she ran at Presque Isle  it was little bit of a slowish pace and she was too close early and did not finish the way she usually does. We don't want to be last, but to be comfortable in a middle position and see if she can pick up the pieces at the end."