Life at Ten retires after a dismal performance in the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park
The 6-year-old mare, Life AT Ten, will always be remembered for the race she did not win, but finishing last in the Grade 1, $350,000 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park on 1 October, 2011, her connections feel it’s time for her to hang up the saddle.
The star-crossed multiple grade 1 winner will be sold at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, said David Vance, manager for owner Candy DeBartolo, on 3 October, 2011.
The daughter of Malibu Moon, out of Rahrahsixboombah by Rahy, Life at Ten has had an awesome career, and she has gone on to win grade 1 races and a million dollar horse.
The 6-year-old mare is trained by Todd Pletcher for owner Candy DeBartolo, and the fantastic female has gone on to shoot up her earnings to $1,277,515, winning eight races out of 22 starts, and six of them were stakes races.
In 2010, Life at Ten really picked up on the winnings as she packed up a punch in the Grade 3 Sixty Sails Handicap over 1 1/8 miles and won it.
She then landed back to back grade 1 and a grade 2 race in the same year, Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park then being shipped to Del Mar to conquer the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap field.
The race that saw her bow out in 2011, was the one she won in 2010, the Grade 1 Beldame Stakes, but the season did not end on a high as she finished a distant 11th in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic at Churchill Downs.
The form fell away with age, but the mare represented her connections thoroughly in the 2011 season and ran in 5 races altogether this season from April to October.
Breeders’ Cup this season was again a possibility, but her connections had decided well before the Beldame Stakes, that if Life at Ten ran well at Belmont Park only then she run in the Breeders’ Cup, but her last finish display was enough to point to retirement.
Everything considered, Life at Ten had all the potential to go in history as a special horse, and she is.
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