Ten-year-old stakes winner Soi Phet continues to build fan club

ARCADIA, Calif. – The most popular horse around Santa Anita this year may not be Triple Crown hopeful Justify but the 10-year-old gelding Soi Phet, the winner of the $102,070 Crystal Water Stakes last Sunday.

Justify has the national fame, but Soi Phet has gained widespread admiration for his durability and the tenacity he displayed in winning Sunday’s one-mile turf race by a head.

“The thing that is really nice is that everyone on the backside is so happy for the horse,” trainer Leonard Powell said on Wednesday. “It’s very rare that everyone is genuinely happy that one horse has won.”

Soi Phet may be the oldest stakes winner in Santa Anita history. Track officials did not have track records available last weekend, but even 9-year-old stakes winners are a rarity.

Kona Gold, the champion sprinter of 2000, was 9 when he won the El Conejo Handicap in 2003. Other 9-year-old stakes winners at Santa Anita were Olhaverry in the 1948 San Pasqual Stakes, Desert Chief III in the 1965 San Marcos Stakes, Super Diamond in the Grade 1 San Antonio Stakes in 1989, and Softshoe Sure Shot in the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes in 1995.

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To succeed at an advanced age, it helps to be a sound gelding who gets an annual rest, such as Soi Phet. Powell has followed a familiar pattern with Soi Phet of racing him from early spring to early autumn in recent seasons.

Soi Phet won the E.B. Johnston Stakes for California-bred milers at Los Alamitos last September and was on the farm a month later. He resumed racing with a second-place finish in an optional claimer on March 23 and was a well-beaten fifth in the Grade 2 Californian Stakes on April 28.

The loss in the Californian did not overly concern Powell.

“In the last race, he saved himself,” Powell said. “I could bring him back in three weeks. If you have a hard race, you have to give him more time. Sometimes when they run bad, you can run them back because they don’t exert themselves.”

Soi Phet was fully extended to win the Crystal Water Stakes for his seventh stakes win. He narrowly prevailed at 47-1 over the 4-year-old B Squared. Soi Phet earned $60,000 and has career earnings of $955,250.

“I think he’s just happy to be here,” Powell said. “You can really see it in the race on Sunday that he wants to be a racehorse. He dug in and wants to be in front.”

Owned by Powell’s wife, Mathilde, along with Paul Viskovich and Gerald Benowitz, Soi Phet has won 14 of 58 starts. The owners and Powell claimed Soi Phet for $16,000 at Hollywood Park in May 2013. The five-year anniversary of the acquisition was Wednesday. Since being claimed, Soi Phet has earned $918,170.

Soi Phet is scheduled to start in the $100,000 Bertrando Stakes for Cal-bred milers at Los Alamitos on July 4, a race he won in 2014.