Silver Ride wins Bienvenidos on Turf Paradise opening day

PHOENIX – Silver Ride ($7) had blinkers removed after a couple of stakes losses at Ellis Park and Canterbury Park this summer and got back on track with a victory in the $25,000 Bienvenidos Stakes at Turf Paradise on Saturday as the Phoenix track opened its 64th meet.

Owned by Randy Marriott, Lana Smith, and R 6 Stable and trained by Robertino Diodoro, Silver Ride lagged back early under Denny Velazquez as C Dub set a blistering pace in the 6 1/2-furlong event for 3-year-olds and up. The winner, a 7-year-old gelded son of Candy Ride, bided his time there to the top of the lane, pitched wide and powered home to get up to win by a length.

It Makes Sense, the 2-1 favorite who finished second ahead of Silver Ride when they met in that aforementioned stakes at Canterbury Park on Sept. 13, was behind the winner from the start and finished well while wide to be the runner-up. Hereditary, a 50-1 shot, rallied for third. Fortified Effort, a multiple stakes winner here was well back early and made a threatening move into the lane, but flattened out to finish sixth in the field of 12.

Silver Ride ran the distance in 1:16.27. The winner’s share of $14,415 pushes his earnings to $357,761 from six wins in 26 starts.