Silent Bird's next challenge: two turns in the San Pasqual

DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Mark Glatt has been forced to take his time with Silent Bird, but that patience is being rewarded. Silent Bird’s victory in an allowance race at Del Mar on Thursday was his fourth straight, all in sprints, and now he will head around two turns, the province of his sire, Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird.

“He’ll stretch out now,” Glatt said, adding that the Grade 2, $200,000 San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 1 would be his next race.

Silent Bird, who is about to turn 5, has raced a mere five times.

“He had shins as a 2-year-old, shins early as a 3-year-old, and after his second race, his shins got sore on him again,” Glatt said.

Silent Bird did not make it to the races until last December at Los Alamitos, finishing second. He then won at Santa Anita in January but went to the sidelines until October. He won a pair of races at Santa Anita during the fall meet, including the Damascus Stakes on Nov. 4.

Glatt said he was nervous on Thursday when he saw how Silent Bird was behaving before the race.

“He got awful upset in the paddock, and he was wound up in the post parade,” Glatt said. “He overcame all that.

“This was harder than I thought it would be. He had never shipped in and run. It’s a tough deal. If the race was Friday, he could have schooled during the races on Thursday. But with the race on Thursday, I wasn’t going to bring him down so far in front of the race so he could school on Sunday.”

Silent Bird is regularly stabled at Santa Anita and is undefeated there.

In both the Damascus and Thursday’s race, Silent Bird got the best of Prospect Park. They’ll meet again in the San Pasqual, according to Prospect Park’s trainer, Cliff Sise Jr.

“This should set him up good for the San Pasqual,” Sise said.

Prospect Park had been off for 8 1/2 months before returning to finish fifth in the Damascus. On Thursday, he rallied for second after being taken back and allowed to make one run. Both races were at seven furlongs.

Prospect Park, 4, has been one of the best of his division on this circuit for two seasons. In 2015, he was second in the San Felipe Stakes and fourth in the Santa Anita Derby behind Dortmund before moving to the turf that summer at Del Mar, where he won the La Jolla Handicap and was third in the Del Mar Derby.