Fair Grounds: Seeking Ms Shelley keeps rolling along in Pan Zareta

The years are piling up for Seeking Ms Shelley, but she remains a low-mileage model. Her first start at the age of 8 was just the 22^nd of her entire career, and a sharp victory Saturday at Fair Grounds in the $75,000 Pan Zareta Stakes ran Seeking Ms Shelley’s winning streak to four.

Ridden by Roman Chapa for owner-breeder Dream Walkin Farm and trainer Joe Duhon, Seeking Ms Shelley got a perfect trip, settling in fourth near the inside as heavily favored Good Deed cut out fractions of 21.50 seconds for her opening quarter-mile and 45.18 for the first half. Pace-pressing Storm’s Promise cornered poorly and drifted out around the turn, leaving a gaping hole on the fence for Chapa and Seeking Ms Shelley. They came through it, collared Good Deed between the three-sixteenths and the eighth poles, and went on to win by 1 1/2

“She put me in a perfect spot,” said Chapa. “I’ll tell you what – she was just much the best today.”

Seeking Ms Shelley, who paid $23.40 to win, was timed in 1:04.32 on a turf course rated soft, and from which all the day’s previous races had been moved to dirt. Seeking Ms Shelley was unproven on wet turf, but Duhon said he had no reservations about the surface.

“She runs about on any surface,” Duhon said.

And that’s the truth. Seeking Ms Shelley, by the Dream Walkin stallion Cactus Ridge, now is 10-5-2-2 in grass races, 4-3-1-0 on wet-track dirt races, and 7-5-1-0 on fast dirt tracks. And somehow, she seems still to be getting better with age.