Silent Tactic to continue on to Rebel off Southwest win

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Silent Tactic will likely advance to next month’s Rebel at Oaklawn Park after emerging from his Friday win in the track’s Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes in good order, trainer Mark Casse said on Saturday.

Silent Tactic capped a banner Southwest Day for Casse, who also won the Martha Washington Stakes with Search Party as part of a four-win afternoon. The card was postponed a week because of Winter Storm Fern.

In the Southwest, Silent Tactic came barreling through the stretch for a 3 1/4-length win. He had one horse beat early, made a sweeping advance around the final turn, continued on six wide into the stretch, and rolled past his remaining rivals in the lane to take down 20 points for the Kentucky Derby.

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“I thought it was impressive,” Casse said of the effort from Silent Tactic. “The pace wasn’t super fast and so it wasn’t like the race crumbled late. He came running. It looks like the farther the better.

“I think if everything goes right, he’ll come back in the Rebel.”

The Grade 2, $1 million Rebel will be run March 1. The race will be held at 1 1/16 miles, the same distance Silent Tactic won over in the Southwest. He won on a fast track in 1:44.85, and earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 88.

Silent Tactic is a son of Tacitus who races for John Oxley. He came into the Southwest off a runner-up finish in the Smarty Jones, the first of Oaklawn’s four points races for the Kentucky Derby.

Oxley and Casse won the Smarty Jones with Strategic Risk, who returned in the Southwest and finished an uncharacteristic 10th.

“He’s good,” Casse said. “He didn’t have one of his best days yesterday. We’ll regroup. I would say if he trains well, he’ll go in the Rebel.

“They’re both big, strong horses.”

Strategic Risk had won the In Reality division of the Florida Sire Stakes at Gulfstream Park before taking the Smarty Jones.

Silent Tactic now has a total of 25 points for the Kentucky Derby, which was tops among all active runners through Friday.

The Rebel is the local stepping-stone to the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby, which Casse won last year with Sandman. This year’s 1 1/8-mile race is March 28.

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