Wertheimer & Frere’s homebred Silentio made a loud impression in his stakes
With a hot-riding Rafael Bejarano in the saddle, Silentio broke well from
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Big Bane Theory continued to battle gamely through three-quarters of a mile
in 1:10 3/5, but Silentio had all the momentum on the outside and surged to the
lead. Battle Force momentarily appeared a danger in the final furlong, sweeping
into the picture with a bold late turn of foot, but Silentio continued to find
more all the way to the wire, winning comfortably by a half-length.
The son of Silent Name completed a mile in 1:34 1/5 on the “good” turf.
“There’s no secret. He’s a good horse,” Mandella said of the winner. “The
secret is to have a good horse and that’s what this is.”
Silentio left the starting gate as the 3-1 second choice among eight runners
and paid $8.40, $4.20 and $3. Battle Force, the 3-1 favorite, finished a length
better than 16-1 third-placer Press Baron. It was another 1 1/2 lengths back to
Big Bane Theory, who was followed by Midnight Crooner, Consipiracy, Smart Ellis
and Fit to Rule.
Silentio captured his first career start in October 2011, winning a one-mile
turf maiden special weight at Santa Anita, but wasn’t seen again under silks
until September 5 at Del Mar, scoring in a 1 1/16-mile turf allowance/optional
claimer. He then finished third in a October 12 allowance/optional claimer at
Santa Anita. With Wednesday’s $90,000 payday, Silentio has now earned $165,960
from his 4-3-0-1 record.
“He really liked the turf today,” said Bejarano, who captured the Grade 1 La
Brea one race earlier and won three of the first six races on the opening-day
program. “In his last race he broke from post one and he was kind of waiting a
little bit. He still ran a good race, but the way he ran today he was clear from
the outside and it was much better for him.
“He was more relaxed in the race so that’s why he gave me a good turn of foot
in the stretch.”
“The only thing I’ll take credit for is we gave him a lot of time for his
injury as a 2-year-old,” Mandella added. “He won last year here and came out of
a race with activity in his tibia that would have turned into fractures. But the
bigger thing was he had some cysts in his hocks. (They were) dug out surgically
and we gave him a lot of time to get over it.”
Out of the unraced A.P. Indy mare Listen, the Kentucky-bred Silentio hails
from an excellent female line. His second dam, the stakes-winning and Group
1-placed Manila mare Ecoute, is a half-sister to a pair of French highweights,
multiple classic winner and sire Green Tune and Group 1 vixen Pas de Reponse,
and this is the family of champions Storm Bird (sire of Storm Cat) and
Northernette.
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