Silent Tactic brushed off his huge loss in the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) in late August to run one of the best races of his life to win the $400,000 Oklahoma Derby (G3) Sept. 27 at Remington Park.
Silent Tactic and Zihnal, co-favorites at 3-2 odds, battled eyeball to eyeball down the stretch of the 1 1/8-mile race on the fast main track. Finally, Silent Tactic got Zihnal to blink in the late going, but not by much. The winner got up by a neck over Zihnal in the last jump.
Silent Tactic had slightly more money bet on him to win than Zihnal and paid $5 to win. The Hell We Did and Crupper ran solid races to get third and fourth, respectively.
One had to wonder what happened to Silent Tactic in the Travers when he was 39 1/2 lengths behind at the next-to-last call and then was eased with a "DNF" next to his name in the charts. After all, Silent Tactic was the runner-up to Renegade at Oaklawn Park in the $1.5 million Arkansas Derby (G1) March 28.
"You just have to cross a line through that last race," said Caden Arthur, assistant trainer to Mark Casse. "He loved the dirt at Oaklawn. Jose (Ortiz) gave him a great ride."
It couldn't have been an easy day leading up to the Oklahoma Derby as Ortiz rode seven races at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. earlier on Sunday, winning one. Then his owners with Silent Tactic put him on a private flight to Oklahoma City after the ninth race there.
"I'm thankful the owners flew me out here," Ortiz said after his Oklahoma Derby win. Cristian Torres was originally named to ride Silent Tactic as he had at Oaklawn this spring, but he could not make the trip after being involved in an accident at Churchill Downs last week that required a trip to the hospital and time off.
Silent Tactic is owned by John Oxley and Victoriam Farm of Tulsa, Okla. The son of Tacitus was bred in Kentucky by Don Alberto Corporation.
Ortiz was all out to win the Oklahoma Derby and he thinks there was a key factor in the victory.
"We broke clean in the race and I was able to cut the corner at the quarter pole," he said. "That was a game changer."
Silent Tactic saved all the ground while Zihnal tried to rally down the middle of the track amidst a troubled trip that saw him take up in the first turn of the race.
The final time for the 1 1/8-mile race was 1:50.31.
Pavlovian was never a factor in the race as he went to his nose at the break of the gate, dumping his jockey, David Cabrera. Cabrera did get up and walked off under his own power.
Silent Tactic earned $240,000 and was already a millionaire before the race, the richest horse in the field. He improved his record to 3-4-1 from nine career starts for a total bankroll of $1,359,422.
Rileytole Gives Asmussen Fifth Oaks
Trainer Steve Asmussen won his fifth Remington Park Oaks Sunday scoring with Rileytole under Paco Lopez.
The 1 1/16-mile event, worth $200,000, featured five 3-year-old fillies with Bank Shot off as the 9-5 wagering favorite. Rileytole entered the first turn four-wide, a couple lengths off the pace-setting Justified Gift, who utilized her rail post position to take advantage of a ground-saving and speedy start. Under John Valezquez, Justified Gift held the lead until the end of the backstretch when Bank Shot went to the front.
Lopez moved Rileytole outside for her bid and was four-wide off the final turn to the stretch where she took the lead once straightening away. Bank Shot and Krissy Star stayed engaged with Rileytole, and the trio battled until the final yards when Lopez was able to get his filly to pull away to a 1-3/4 length score in 1:45.72 over the fast track.
Rileytole was bred by Don Duppenthaler, Jackie Duppenthaler, Wade Russell, and Donna Russell.
Asmussen also won the Remington Park Oaks in 1999 with Carlitta, 2005 with More Than Promised, 2018 with She's A Julie, and 2019 with Lady Apple. This was the first Oaks for owner William and Corrine Heiligbrodt of Houston and the first for Lopez.
