Silent Name, Old Forester battling it out again in Canadian sire standings

It’s not quite Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, but the stallions Silent Name and Old Forester have established a rivalry atop the Canadian sire ranks.

Old Forester and Silent Name have both been among the top 10 Ontario sires for eight consecutive years, with Old Forester atop the list in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Silent Name steadily closed in. After finishing second on the list in 2017, he took over the top spot last year, with Old Forester second.

Silent Name, who stands at Adena Springs North, is the only son of Sunday Silence – who became a dynastic sire in Japan – advertised at stud in North America. Appropriately enough, on the 30-year anniversary of Sunday Silence’s 1989 Horse of the Year season, Silent Name is again edging out his rival atop the sire list.

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Silent Name, who had sired 58 winners on the season through Dec. 16, has progeny earnings of $2,814,976 for 2019. Old Forester, a son of Forestry, was in close pursuit with a bankroll of $2,637,531. The latter, who stands at T.C. Westmeath Stud Farm, was represented by 52 winners, including reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Pink Lloyd.

Japanese-born Silent Name, a stakes winner in France, later won the Grade 2 Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland and placed in three Grade 1 events in California. He retired to Adena Springs in Kentucky for the 2008 season before standing the 2009 and 2010 seasons in Ontario at Gardiner Farms. He then stood at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds for two years, along with several other Adena Springs horses, before moving to Adena Springs North in Aurora.

Silent Name is the sire of 32 stakes winners in his career and added a pair of new graded stakes winners to his résumé in 2019. Summer Sunday won both the Grade 2 Royal North Stakes and Grade 3 Hendrie Stakes at Woodbine. She also won the Ballade Stakes, leading home Silent Sonet, a Grade 3 winner last year, as Silent Name swept the exacta. The stallion also added Silent Poet to his graded winners this season, as Silent Poet won the Grade 2 Play the King Stakes at Woodbine, running the seven furlongs in a course-record 1:19.22.