Keeneland: Da Silva guides Overheard to Valley View victory

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eurico Da Silva has been a top jockey in Canada for years but has had limited opportunities south of the border. The 2010 Sovereign Award winner, Da Silva has begun to make his presence known with Keeneland racegoers, however, as he notched his second graded stakes of the fall meet Friday when giving Overheard a perfect trip Friday in the 23rd running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Pin Oak Valley View Stakes.

Overheard, bred and owned by the race sponsor, rallied from ninth when spurting away inside the eighth pole to prevail by a length. She returned $12.40 as third choice in a field of 12 3-year-old fillies after finishing the 1 1/16-mile distance in 1:43.35 over a firm turf.

Nellie Cashman, the 9-2 second choice, finished second, another 1 3/4 lengths before 9-5 favorite Summer of Fun. Frivolous came from last to be fourth.

“My trip was awesome,” said Da Silva, adding he wanted to stay wide, where he believed the course to be firmest. “When I came through, she was in the clear. I had a lot of horse under me. She was ready today.”

Da Silva, a 38-year-old native of Brazil, had won just one Keeneland stakes, the 2009 Phoenix on Fast Bullet, before taking the Grade 1 Alcibiades aboard My Conquestadory with a similar flourish on opening day, Oct. 4, of this 17-day fall meet.

Malcolm Pierce is the trainer of Overheard, a bay Macho Uno filly who never has been worse than third in her 10 career starts for the Pin Oak Farm of Josephine Abercrombie. The filly was coming off back-to-back runner-up finishes in Woodbine stakes behind Leigh Court, who ran a creditable fourth last weekend in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.

“I knew the filly would run big,” said Pierce. “I didn’t know if she would win, but she really had been training well.”

Stormin Elle set the early fractions, followed closest by several longer-priced fillies and Nellie Cashman saving ground from just behind them. After swinging for home, the complexion changed radically, with Overheard getting that powerful first run before Nellie Cashman and Summer of Fun made it through moderate traffic in futile chase.

The $2 exacta (8-1) paid $94.20; the $1 trifecta (8-1-3) returned $141.40; and the 10-cent superfecta (8-1-3-6) was worth $172.50.

Ontrack attendance on a sunny, seasonable afternoon was 19,568, boosted partly by the bi-annual college scholarship raffle promotion.

She’s Popular and Sense to Compete were early scratches, leaving the 12-horse maximum.