Silent Reserve poised to make some holiday noise
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The speedy Silent Reserve has found a cozy spot Monday at Woodbine in the featured conditioned allowance with a $50,000 claiming option.
Silent Reserve is made-to-order for the five-furlong inner turf dash, which is over the same course and distance of each of his last four starts. The son of Silent Name crushed maiden special opposition by six lengths with an 82 Beyer Speed Figure in his second appearance at the meet June 2. Five weeks later, he ran second to the leading local sprinter, Patches O’Houlihan, in the Lake Huron Stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds. “Patches” subsequently beat older foes in the Grade 3 Bold Venture.
Silent Reserve polished off older allowance rivals by three lengths with an 87 Beyer on July 21. He’s coming off a neck loss to the favored shipper Outlaw Kid in the Vice Regent Stakes for Ontario-breds, for which he got a whopping 92 Beyer under Eswan Flores.
Flores will get a leg up again from trainer Mike Mattine on Silent Reserve, who’s owned by the successful partnership of Stacey Van Camp and Carlo D’Amato.
Shekky Shebaz and Warp Ride figure to have the best chance to run down Silent Reserve.
The classy 8-year-old Shekky Shebaz won two turf sprint stakes when he was on top of his game in 2019, including the Lucky Coin at Belmont Park. He ended a long drought when beating conditioned allowance rivals two back at Gulfstream Park on April 2, when he earned a 95 Beyer going five-eighths.
Shekky Shebaz has started once at this meet, a dull 10th-place finish behind the likes of Souper Dormy and Lucky Score in a June 4 allowance/optional claimer. He has been working bullets of late on the dirt training track for trainer Marty Drexler, who entered him for $50,000 with Kazushi Kimura as the rider.
Off a freshening, Warp Ride finished a wide fourth behind Silent Reserve in the Vice Regent, easily his best performance in some time. He wintered at Gulfstream, where he wasn’t an impact player before two lackluster performances here in the spring.
Luis Contreras retains the mount on Warp Ride for trainer Andrew Smith, who has seven seconds to go along with two wins from 19 starters at the meet.
Kawacatoose, a need-the-lead type, doesn’t have the speed to match Silent Reserve and would appear to be up against it. His trainer, Phil Gracey, sent out Ravello Beauty to win nicely off the claim on Friday, his first victory of the meet.
Forester’s Fortune finished seventh after a troubled run in the Vice Regent and has been in a tailspin for about a year.
Rounding out the field is Western Trouble, who’s jumping up in class off a third in a $25,000 claimer on the inner course.
Post time for the nine-race holiday card is 1:05 p.m. Eastern.
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