St. John's Gospel upsets Private Terms

Not for Silver couldn't get past the front-running St. John's Gospel in the $50,000 Private Terms at Laurel Park, falling short by a head in his bid to stay undefeated.

As jockey Hector Ramos had St. John's Gospel along the rail and on the lead through fractions of 24.46 and 47.88 seconds in the one-mile Private Terms, Julien Pimentel had the 1-2 Not for Silver just off the pace early.

Pimentel made his move coming around the turn to engage St. John's Gospel, and the two horses drew off from the rest of the pack at the eighth pole. They went head and head to the wire, with St. John's Gospel getting there first. It was another 3 1/2 lengths back to Hehasnosay in the scratch-reduced field of six.

St. John's Gospel, a Pennsylvania-bred son of Activist trained by Andrea Gonzalez, covered the distance in 1:37.62 on a fast track.

Gonzalez said her instruction to Ramos had been, "Just try to keep the horse out of trouble . . . play it by ear."

As for the gelding's future races, Gonzalez said, "He seems to want to go two turns."