Grade II winner St Trinians has been retired from racing and will be sold as a broodmare prospect at the Fasig-Tipton November sale, trainer Mike Mitchell said Sept. 28.
St Trinians, who nearly stopped Zenyatta's record win streak in the 2010 Vanity Handicap (gr. I) at Hollywood Park, was coming off a victory in the restricted Adoration Stakes at Del Mar Sept. 4. The 6-year-old British-bred daughter of Piccolo was being prepared for a start in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (gr. I) Oct. 9 at Keeneland.
But she returned from a five-furlong workout Sept. 24 with some fluid in her left ankle, Mitchell said, and the decision was made to retire her. Though St Trinians is doing well since, the trainer said he "didn't want to take a chance" on racing her again.
"Dave Ingordo (Ingordo Bloodstock Services) will be handling the sale for us," Mitchell said. "The plan was to retire her after running in the Spinster and place her in the sale, so she'll just go straight into the sale."
St Trinians won three of seven starts before being purchased in 2009 and transferred to the United States, where she raced for Daniel Capers and Laura Chavers. She won five of 12 starts in the U.S., including four straight to begin her American career. The streak was capped by a 1 3/4-length win in the 2010 Santa Maria Handicap (gr. II) at Santa Anita, in which she handily defeated Life Is Sweet, winner of the Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic (gr. I) three months earlier.
In her next start, St Trinians finished a troubled sixth as the favorite against males in the Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I). Her best-remembered effort came in the race that followed the Big 'Cap. Facing Zenyatta in the 1 1/8-mile Vanity, St Trinians opened a clear lead in deep stretch but was nabbed in the final strides by the eventual Horse of the Year, losing by a half-length.
St Trinians concluded her career with an 8-1-4 record in 19 starts and earnings of $440,758.
Mitchell said the ankle the bay mare injured in her last workout had been a chronic problem.
"She was a little crooked on that left side, she had always been that way. It's funny, though, the jockeys that rode her said she moved like a Cadillac. She always hit the ground well," he said. "We got a lot of great racing out of her. It's just time for her to be a mommy."
Bred by Mrs. E.L. Hunter, St Trinians was out of the British mare Cherrycombe-Row, by Classic Cliche.
