Soi Phet's career near the end

ARCADIA, Calif. – Soi Phet, the 11-year-old stakes winner, is on the verge of being retired.

Trainer Leonard Powell said Monday that Soi Phet may have one more start, in the $100,000 Bertrando Stakes for California-breds on June 29 at Los Alamitos, depending on how he trains in coming weeks.

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Soi Phet finished sixth, beaten 13 lengths, in an optional claimer at a mile Friday at Santa Anita in his second start of the year. On April 27, Soi Phet finished seventh by 4 1/4 lengths in the Crystal Water Stakes for California-bred turf milers, a race he won in 2018.

Powell said Soi Phet’s enthusiasm for training will dictate plans.

“I’ll get him back on the track and galloping and I’ll see how his attitude is,” Powell said. “He will have no more than one more start and that will be his last start.”

Soi Phet became the oldest stakes winner in Santa Anita history in the 2018 Crystal Water. He won the Bertrando at Los Alamitos last July before finishing fourth in the Harry Brubaker Stakes at Del Mar last August and sixth in the E.B. Johnston Stakes at Los Alamitos last September in his final start of the season.

If Soi Phet has run his last race, the gelding will end his career with 15 wins in 63 starts and earnings of $1,023,566. He was claimed for $16,000 in 2013 and has since earned $985,486 for Powell’s wife, Mathilde, Paul Viskovich, and Gerald Benowitz.

Powell talked about retiring Soi Phet last fall, but the popular runner went back into training over the winter. Powell said that when Soi Phet’s racing career is over he will be sent to a retirement farm in Kentucky.