Ageless held off the rallying Sky Treasure, while equaling the course record, to capture Sunday’s Grade 3 $153,700 Royal North Stakes, at Woodbine.
Trained by Arnaud Delacour for Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s Lael Stables, the five-year-old daughter of Successful Appeal captured her third race in succession, while taking her first graded score with a determined stretch run in the six furlong sprint over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course.
Ageless, who arrived at the Royal North from turf sprint wins in the Giant’s Causeway Stakes at Keeneland and The Very One Stakes at Pimlico, was making her first start in Canada with regular pilot Luis Garcia along for the ride.
Goldstryke Glory set swift splits of :21.73 and :43.66 in the Royal North with Youcan’tcatchme and Silent Treat tracking her early foot.
Ageless settled into fourth position for Garcia before surging beyond Goldstryke Glory with a sixteenth to run keeping plenty in reserve to stay off Sky Treasure for a half-length win.
Ageless covered six furlongs in 1:07.39, equaling the mark of Starticus set on July 5, 2008.
Garcia was pleased with the trip he engineered for the bay.
“She loved this course, it’s very flat like Laurel,” said Garcia of the mare’s home course. “If you know how to wait with her, that stretch run is perfect for her. If I went earlier it would have been too long, so I tried to wait for as long as I could before I asked her to punch.”
It was the second win in three starts for Lael Stables at Woodbine having previously captured the 2002 edition of the Grade 3 Dance Smartly with Sweetest Thing, while Nicanor finished fourth in the 2010 running of the Labeeb Stakes.
Lael Stables are best known for their Grade 1 winners Check The Label, Precious Kitten, Showing Up and 2006 Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro.
Ageless banked $90,000 in victory while improving her record to 8-2-2 from 14 career starts.
She paid $7.10, $4.20 and $2.80, combining with Sky Treasure ($9.60, $5.20) for a $66.30 (9-1) exactor. A 9-1-6 (Goldstryke Glory, $3.30) triactor was worth $347.10, while a $1 Superfecta [9-1-6-7 (Blessed One)] came back $2283.60. Mekong Delta was scratched.
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
