C2 Racing Stable, Agave Racing Stable and Ken Reimer's champion female sprinter Soul of an Angel (Atreides) is being pointed towards the Apr. 5 GI Madison Stakes at Keeneland, trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. confirmed Sunday. The 6-year-old mare had been on the alternate list for the Feb. 22 G1 Saudi Cup and, had she kept that engagement, would have shipped to Riyadh on a Tuesday flight.
“She's not going for sure,” Joseph said of the overseas trip. “That's official. She's going to go to the Madison. We're going to give her a little freshening now that we're not going to Saudi and probably in a month or so we'll start back breezing her.”
Winner of last year's GII Ruffian Stakes and GIII Princess Rooney Invitational Stakes, Soul of an Angel earned her Eclipse championship with a win in the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint. She was forced to close into a slow pace while finishing a narrowly beaten third in the Rampart Stakes at Gulfstream in December in her most recent outing.
She had three timed works following the Rampart, the last one a half-mile move in :47.80 Feb. 2.
“We won't breeze her every week because it's too far out from the [Madison],” Joseph said. “As it turned out at the last minute we probably could have gotten in at Saudi, but it was too late. We only ran in the Rampart with Saudi in mind. If I had to redo it, we would have given her a break then.”
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