Ag Bullet, pulled from November sale, likely to start in Matriarch Stakes

DEL MAR, Calif. - Ag Bullet was listed as Hip No. 216 for the Fasig-Tipton November Sale in Kentucky on Nov. 4, two days after she finished third by a neck in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar.

Ag Bullet never left California.

“We didn’t want to sell her,” trainer Richard Baltas said.

Instead, Ag Bullet will start in her third consecutive Grade 1 race in the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Del Mar on Sunday, the final day of the track’s current autumn meeting.

Owned by Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran, Ag Bullet finished fourth to Matriarch nominee Gina Romantica in the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes at a mile on turf at Keeneland, and was narrowly beaten by Starlust in the Grade 1 BC Turf Sprint.

“I was happy with it,” Baltas said of the BC Turf Sprint at five furlongs. “I thought it would be too short. She got beat a neck against the boys.”

Ag Bullet, 4, will be after her fifth stakes win of the year in the Matriarch. During the summer she won the restricted Osunitas Stakes at a mile on turf at Del Mar in July and followed with a win in the Grade 2 Ladies Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 31. Ag Bullet ran 6 1/2 furlongs in a course-record time of 1:14.19 in that $1.37 million race.

Umberto Rispoli, who has been aboard for all four of her stakes wins this year and the narrow loss in the BC Turf Sprint, has the mount on Sunday, Baltas said.

Regardless of the result on Sunday, Ag Bullet will have a wintertime rest.

“She’ll have some time on the farm, 30 or 45 days,” Baltas said. “She’ll race next year.”

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