Trainer Sharon Boland adds to family legacy
The results of the $60,000 Aventura on Saturday at Gulfstream Park surely had some racing fans going back a few generations in time.
Perfect Silent Cat gave Sharon Boland her first stakes win in a training career that officially began in February 2020 when driving to a three-length score in the Aventura under Luca Panici. The name Boland might have rung a bell to anyone familiar with racing history, and sure enough, Sharon is the daughter of Bill Boland, who in 1950 won the Kentucky Derby aboard Middleground as a 16-year-old apprentice.
Sharon Boland told Gulfstream publicity following the 12-1 upset by Perfect Silent Cat, a 3-year-old colt by the pensioned 27-year-old sire Tale of the Cat, that she has worked around horses for about 30 years, including when she was married to trainer Anthony Mitchell.
Boland said her father’s position as a racing official precluded her from running horses in her own name, “so I took a back seat and let my [former] husband run them in his name.”
She currently has about 20 horses at the Palm Meadows training center.
Bill Boland, who was among the youngest jockeys ever to win the Derby, is living in the Daytona Beach area in Palm Coast, Fla., where he remains active at age 88. He was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2006. Lonnie Clayton was just 15 when he won the 1892 Derby on Azra.
Perfect Silent Cat gave Sharon Boland just her seventh win from 95 overall starts. Bred in Kentucky by Charles Fipke, the colt was purchased by Shamrock Highlands Thoroughbreds for a mere $6,000 in February at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky mixed sale.
“We found a few little things we were able to fix,” said Boland, “and from the second we fixed his little issues, he’s been a 100 percent performer who gives you everything. He’s the nicest colt I’ve been around – just a class act.”
Statebreds in spotlight
A couple of $51,000, main-track allowances for Florida-breds are the co-features of a 10-race Friday card that gets another three-day weekend at Gulfstream under way at 2 p.m. Eastern.
Race 4 figures to have Nacho Papa and Creative Cloud as favorites in a field of six going a flat mile, while Vinnie Van Go looks like the one to beat in a field of eight in race 8 at six furlongs.
Only the second statebred allowance is part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6, which spans races 5-10 and is expected to offer a guaranteed pool of at least $250,000 (the actual pool through Sunday stood at $172,132). The Rainbow 6 was last forced out July 31.
Half of the 10 races on Friday are scheduled for turf. Mostly sunny skies and a high of 88 are in the local forecast.
The weekend highlights at Gulfstream are the $75,000 Proud Man and $75,000 Sharp Susan, both on Saturday. Entries for both one-mile turf races for 2-year-olds were to be drawn Wednesday.
◗ Edgard Zayas has edged ahead of Emisael Jaramillo by a 97-96 tally in their ongoing battle for the lead atop the local jockey standings.