BREEDER’S CUP : SPRINT : Jockey Makes Right Choice : Delahoussaye could have ridden Thirty Slews, last year’s champion, but instead picked this year’s--Cardmania.

Eddie Delahoussaye had a decision to make. Does he ride Thirty Slews, the horse he won with in last year’s Sprint, or does he go with Cardmania, the horse he rode to victory in the Ancient Title Handicap at Santa Anita less than a month ago?

“It was a tough choice, but I’d worked Thirty Slews a couple of times and wasn’t comfortable with him,” Delahoussaye said.

So he chose Cardmania.

Good choice, Eddie.

Cardmania, who at 7 became the oldest horse to win a Breeders’ Cup race, came from fifth at the top of the stretch to beat Meafara by a neck and win the $1-million Sprint at Santa Anita.

Meafara had led from the start and refused to give up the lead until the final jump. She was engaged in a spirited stretch duel with Gilded Time, Demaloot Demashoot and Thirty Slews on their heels. Cardmania was trying to get outside to make his run.

“Cardmania broke real well, but as we went down the track I got shuffled back,” Delahoussaye said. “Then I was in trouble and I had to take her outside. When we entered the stretch, I wasn’t sure he would catch the filly.”

But he did.

Cardmania’s time of 1:08 3/5 was two-fifths of a second off of the stakes mark set by Thirty Slews last year at Gulfstream. Cardmania paid $12.60.

The best news from the Sprint, though, was that no horse had to be destroyed. The race has a horrible history of horses breaking down. In the past, On The Line, Mr. Nickerson, Shaker Knit and Mr Brooks were immediately or eventually destroyed after suffering an injury in the race.

But Saturday’s race was injury free.

Before his victory in the Ancient Title, Cardmania was running as if there were something wrong. He was on a 17-race, 17-month losing streak.

“He just had bad draws,” trainer Derek Meredith said. “And the jockeys were looking at the PPs (past performance lines) and always dropping him back. That’s why I told Eddie to keep him up there and he’ll still come flying at the end.”

Owner Jean Couvercelle bought the horse when he was a 3-year-old, $20,000 claimer. Shortly thereafter, the horse was gelded.

Cardmania was only the third gelding to win a Breeders’ Cup race. Great Communicator and Thirty Slews were the others.

Couvercelle is more than an owner. He heads the sports coverage for the Filipacchi Press Hachette Group in France.

“But I didn’t come here to just cover one race,” Couvercelle said. “I’m here to cover all the races, and most of my story will be on the Classic.”

As for Meredith, who is originally from England, he heads a stable of nine horses.

“I didn’t have many outside candidates (that bring their horses to me),” Meredith said. “I could use some.”

Perhaps after Saturday, he will get some.