Silver Reunion leads throughout in Endeavour

Silver Reunion defied a lengthy layoff, and a course that’s been unfriendly to front runners (Tom Cooley Photography) Making just her second start in the past 15 months, Brereton C. Jones’ homebred SILVER REUNION (Harlan’s Holiday) scored a wire-to-wire victory in Saturday’s $125,000 Endeavour S. (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs. In the process, the 2-1 favorite gave jockey Ramon Dominguez an unprecedented sweep of the three stakes on Festival Preview Day, along with a fine advertisement for trainer Graham Motion. The lightly-raced five-year-old was last seen in the August 28 Ballston Spa H. (G2) at Saratoga, where she nearly pulled off a front-running upset in her comeback from a 10-month layoff. That turned out to be her only outing of 2010, and the dark bay was once again ready to fire off the bench here. Gliding straight to the lead in a race without an overabundance of pace, Silver Reunion carved out steady splits of :24, :48 3/5 and 1:13 4/5 on the good turf, and opened up a daylight margin through a mile in 1:37 4/5. The stalking C. S. Silk (Medaglia d’Oro) rallied furiously in the final sixteenth, but her bid fell a half-length short. Silver Reunion held on while completing 1 1/16 grassy miles in 1:43 4/5, paying $6, $3.80 and $3.20.

“She is still learning the game and has a lot of speed,” Dominguez said, “so
when we hit the front so early, I had to settle her down. She had been off so
long and was very sharp and eager to go. When we got into the stretch, she was
getting a bit tired, and I had to keep after her because I knew there would be
challenges coming. But she did fine.”

C. S. Silk finished a clear second by 1 1/4 lengths, and third-placer
Denomination (Smart Strike) held the same advantage over You Go West Girl (Mr.
Greeley) in fourth. Kiss Mine (Mineshaft), Scolara (Quiet American), Spring
Party (Smart Strike), Ruling Class (Mazel Trick), Seniga (Military) and Lady
Shatzi (Per) (Privately Held) rounded out the order under the wire.

Silver Reunion’s first graded stakes coup improved her record to 10-5-1-0,
$254,403. The winner of the 2009 Riskaverse S. at Saratoga in her turf debut,
she faded next time out in a division of the Valley View S. (G3) at Keeneland,
and was sidelined until her tilt at the 2010 Ballston Spa.

Owner-breeder Jones, the former governor of Kentucky, said that he was mildly
concerned about his mare’s return to the track after a nearly six-month layoff
in this spot.

“Well, you’ve always got to be concerned, but when you’re in the barn of a
great trainer with great assistants, that’s mitigated to an extent. The great
thing about the situation is that she’s in very good hands, and it’s difficult
to bring a horse back in that kind of a race against that kind of competition
when she hasn’t run in quite a while. So obviously she’s a quality horse with a
quality trainer, and we’re just along for the ride — it’s a lot of fun!

“Our plans are to go into the top turf races for older fillies around the
country, and hopefully we’ll be able to be in the right position for the
Breeders’ Cup when the time comes, but that’s a long way down the road.”

The Kentucky-bred is out of Grade 2 victress Silver Comic (Silver Hawk),
whose latest progeny are a juvenile filly named Constantinoble (Istan) and a
yearling full sister to Silver Reunion. Silver Comic is herself a half-sister to
English and Irish highweight Lucayan Prince (Fast Play), multiple Grade 3 winner
Comic Strip (Red Ransom) and stakes scorer Akiba (Tejano). This is also the
family of French Group 1 queen Tropicaro (Fr) (Caro [Ire]).