Ageless Sets Course Record in Royal North

Ageless, under a perfect ride by Julien Leparoux, established a new course record while defending her title in Sunday's co-featured $150,900 Grade 3 Royal North Stakes, at Woodbine.

The six-year-old Successful Appeal-Special One bay, trained by Arnaud Delacour for owner Lael Stables, arrived at the six furlong sprint over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course for older fillies and mares from a strong third-place run against the boys in the Grade 3 Jaipur Stakes held June 6 at Belmont Park.

Richies Party Girl and Leigh Court dueled through splits of :22.22 and :44.22 in the Royal North with Zensational Bunny tracking from third position. Leparoux settled into fourth position down the back straight with Ageless, improving gradually through the turn as Leigh Court put away Richies Party Girl and set down for the stretch run with a narrow lead.  

Ageless, moving comfortably under Leparoux, rallied three-wide into the lane and quickened with a tremendous turn of foot to engage the leader and surge to a 3/4-length victory in a course record 1:07.17 eclipsing the 1:07.18 set by Go Blue Or Go Home on July 5 in the Grade 2 Highlander Stakes.  Leigh Court was 5 ½-lengths clear of Zensational Bunny for place.

"She's getting better all the time. Today, she won very impressively," said Leparoux. "Today, the way she came after those horses was great."

Delacour was pleased with the bay's big effort over the Woodbine lawn.

"She's very versatile. She can usually run well on softer turf, but today the turf was firm and she didn't seem to mind," said Delacour. "She always comes with a good run at the end and that's what she did today."

Ageless, bred in Kentucky by Hinkle Farms, banked $90,000 in victory while improving her record to 10-4-4 from 21 starts.

She paid $3.40, $2.10 and $2.10, combining with Leigh Court ($2.90, $2.30) for a $7 (7-6) exactor. A 7-6-3 triactor (Zensational Bunny, $2.90 to show) was worth $38. Executive Allure and Resistivity were scratched.

Conquest Pacemaker wires Toronto Cup

Conquest Pacemaker made his added-money debut a winning one with a stirring front end score in Sunday's $131,500 Toronto Cup, at Woodbine.

Trained by Mark Casse for owners Conquest Stables LLC., the Eskendereya-Heart Rate chestnut arrived at the 1 1/8-mile turf stake for three-years-olds from an impressive 2 1/2-length maiden allowance win on July 11 in just his second lifetime start, while racing in similar front-running fashion under Patrick Husbands.

With Husbands committed to Casse entrant Flashaway, Eurico Rosa da Silva took over aboard Conquest Pacemaker for the Toronto Cup and sent the chestnut to the lead through an easy quarter in :24.68 with Decision Day stalking his early foot.  

Conquest Pacemaker led the compact field of seven to the far turn with Decision Day and U S Marshal converging as trailers Lucky Lindy and Indebted were urged into gear by Robby Albarado and Julien Leparoux respectively.

Da Silva opened up a 2 1/2-length lead at the top of the lane under some urging as Conquest Pacemaker quickened away, while keeping plenty in reserve to stay off the final thrust of Lucky Lindy for a 1 1/2-length win.  Conquest Pacemaker covered 1 1/8-miles in 1:46.08.

A $150,000 purchase at the 2014 March Sale of Selected Two-Year-Olds in Training, Conquest Pacemaker proved full value for his connections with the flashy win.

"Mark Casse's team does a great job and this horse was ready to run," said da Silva. "He just took the lead and was running very easy. He was very comfortable."

Da Silva wasn't concerned about the late rush from Albarado and Lucky Lindy.

"I still had a little bit more horse to fight on at the end. He was running very strong. It's hard to catch a horse when they increase and increase their speed," said da Silva.

Conquest Pacemaker, bred in Kentucky by Marion G. Montanari, banked $75,000 in victory while improving his record to 2-0-1 from three starts.

He paid $21.30, $8.30 and $5.80, combining with Lucky Lindy ($4.70, $3.40) for a $91.70 (6-2) exactor. A 6-2-8 triactor (Flashaway, $3.40 to show) was worth $407.70, while a $1 Superfecta [6-2-8-7 (Decision Day)] came back $1173.25. Street Tail was scratched.

Source: Woodbine Communications