Quiet Force blooming just in time for Million

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – A year later than originally intended, Quiet Force is headed to the Arlington Million.

Quiet Force came out of his win in the Arlington Handicap on July 11 in good shape and is on track to start in the Million here Aug. 15, trainer Mike Maker said. Based at the Churchill Downs Training Center, Quiet Force will work on dirt while preparing for his Grade 1 debut in the Million.

Quiet Force was bred to be a good horse but took a circuitous route to becoming one. A 5-year-old by Dynaformer who was bred by Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, Quiet Force is from the same family as Dare and Go, who famously upset Cigar in the 1996 Pacific Classic. He won his career debut for the Wertheimer brothers and trainer Richard Mandella but could not clear his first-level allowance condition in five tries, wound up in a conditioned-claiming race, and was claimed twice in a row in early 2014.

The second claim, for $40,000, landed him in Maker’s care, and last summer Quiet Force began blossoming, cruising to a first-level turf allowance score at Churchill, then easily winning the $103,000 Self Stakes at Indiana Grand in July. Maker and owner Charles Warner wanted to aim high and run in the Million, but Quiet Force suffered a condylar fracture while breezing that required surgery, and he didn’t start again until May 26, when he finished a troubled third in a Parx allowance race, his lone start before capturing the Arlington Handicap.

“We’ve always had high expectations for this horse,” Maker said. “As well as he’d trained since the Parx race, he’d been touting us.”

Maker has horses for two other Grade 1 Million Day stakes: Granny’s Kitten for the Secretariat and Roman Approval for the American St. Leger.

Granny’s Kitten finished eighth last out in the Belmont Derby, but that was well below his best form. Two starts ago, despite a traffic-filled trip, he finished third in the Penn Mile, beaten less than one length by Force the Pass, who would win the Belmont Derby. Granny’s Kitten worked a half-mile on the Saratoga training track last Saturday.

Roman Approval, a Puerto Rican import who also came to Maker via claim, set the pace and finished a narrowly beaten second to The Pizza Man in the Stars and Stripes Stakes on Arlington’s July 11 card.

Up With the Birds to Million

Up With the Birds could only finish third as the favorite in the Arlington Handicap, and he was losing ground at the finish to Quiet Force and Middleburg, but he remains on course to make his second start in the Arlington Million, trainer Graham Motion said.

“We sent him there with the idea of running in the Million,” Motion said. “I know he had every chance late in the race, but he had a very awkward trip early. He probably will come back next month.”

Up With the Birds, trained by Malcolm Pierce at the time, finished fourth in the 2014 Million.

◗ The highest-class fare on Thursday’s card is race 8, a first-level turf-route allowance, and it will be interesting to see what Giant Deduction does. The Team Block homebred filly trained by Chris Block is by Giant’s Causeway and out of the good producer Taxable Deduction, and she won her July 2 career debut going two turns on grass like a horse with plenty of upside.