Silence Dogood drawn well

ELMONT, N.Y. - The last time Silence Dogood had an outside post in a seven-furlong overnight turf stakes at Belmont Park, she won by 1 1/4 lengths at a relatively short 2-1.

Since then, however, Silence Dogood shows two bad races on her form, which may help elevate her price when she runs in Wednesday's $75,000 Wild Applause, a seven-furlong overnight turf stakes in which Silence Dogood has drawn the outside post in a field of 12.

Prior to winning the Babae here on June 8, Silence Dogood had run competitively with the likes of Panty Raid and Rutherienne, both Grade 1-winning turf fillies. After the Babae, Silence Dogood finished last in the Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs and fifth of seven in a seven-furlong dirt allowance race at Saratoga.

John Kimmel, the trainer of Silence Dogood, said his filly had a rough trip in the Virginia Oaks as jockey Garrett Gomez was trying to get her tucked in and relaxed.

"The rider and the horse were having two different opinions about what should be going on," Kimmel said. "She wanted to run on and he's trying to slow her down. It was a total mess."

Kimmel said Silence Dogood was training so well on the dirt this summer at Saratoga that he thought it was worth taking a shot even though she had run poorly on conventional dirt once before.

"She kind of ran a half a mile, she didn't like the dirt in her face, and she just kind of caved in the last quarter of a mile," Kimmel said.

Silence Dogood, a daughter of Grand Slam, has continued to train well, firing bullet works at Saratoga and Belmont leading up to this.

"At seven-eighths, you don't have to be in her mouth very strong," Kimmel said. "She's on the outside, she can place herself in a good position, and hopefully have something to say. I think she's doing very well right now."

Unspoken Word has also kept good company, finishing third behind Lear's Princess in the Tweedside Stakes here in July. She was beaten a neck by Classic Neel in the Weekend Madness Stakes at Saratoga last out. Trainer Pat Reynolds believes his filly is the one to catch under Rafael Bejarano.

"Nobody's ever run any harder than her and never won a stake," Reynolds said. "She's coming up to the race as good as hands can make her. I got to figure they got to catch us."

Other contenders include Pay Wright, Christies Treasure, Sweet Ransom, and Russian Gypsy.