Silent Poet outduels Admiralty Pier in Connaught Cup

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Front-runners Silent Poet and Admiralty Pier put on quite a show in Saturday’s Grade 2 Connaught Cup at Woodbine, and the favored Silent Poet prevailed in a gritty performance under Justin Stein.

Over a course labeled soft, Silent Poet and Admiralty Pier dueled through splits of 23.07 and 45.70 in the seven-furlong sprint on the main turf course. Neither gave an inch until late stretch, when Silent Poet edged away to prevail by a half-length.

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Silent Poet ($4.90) completed the distance in 1:23.62, which was well off his own course record of 1:19.22, set in last year’s Grade 2 Play the King.

Stein inherited the mount on Silent Poet, a 5-year-old son of Silent Name, from Gary Boulanger, who was recently sidelined with a knee injury.

“I was really excited to ride him,” Stein said. “He definitely showed me his stuff. When I rode against him on Cooler Mike, I rode right up to him like we were going to drive on by, and he looked at us and laughed, kinda like he did today. It was like ‘Let’s see what you got [Admiralty Pier].’ Just so much heart, unbelievable.”

Trained by Nick Gonzalez, Silent Poet earned $126,000 of the $196,700 purse for Stronach Stables.

Blind Ambition finished third, and was followed by Olympic Runner, City Boy and Gray’s Fable. White Flag and Regally Irish were scratched.