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Silmaril goes out a winner Veteran stakes queen SILMARIL (Diamond) concluded her career on Saturday with an easy two-length victory in the $80,000 What a Summer S. at Laurel Park. The seven-year-old mare is now scheduled to take up her new career at co-owner Stephen Quick's St. Omer's Farm near Forest Hill, Maryland. "This is it," Quick said. "We did what we came out to do today. I hope all the fans appreciated it." Silmaril let the rest of her rivals go on early in the What a Summer, racing in the rear of the six-horse field under Jeremy Rose while 1-2 favorite Your Flame in Me (Boundary) set splits of :22 3/5 and :45 4/5. That one began to back up rounding the turn, but Silmaril was just getting started. Coming four wide into the stretch, the dark bay mare quickly moved to the front and pulled off to finish the six-furlong test in 1:10 2/5. She ran three-fifths of a second quicker than when she captured last year's What a Summer. "Class prevailed today," trainer Chris Grove said. "She told me for the last week and a half that she was ready to go." "This is the first time since Afleet Alex that I had goose bumps hitting the wire," Rose confessed. "I am happy to be the last jockey to ride her." Silmaril has drawn a following during her six seasons of racing, racking up 11 stakes wins, including the 2007 Endine S. (G3) and the 2005 Pimlico Distaff H. (G3). She's also placed in eight black-type events, including the 2005 and 2007 runnings of the Barbara Fritchie H. (G2). "I started crying when I was cinching up the girth knowing it was the last time that I was going to do it," Grove admitted. "Everyone is really emotional about this mare because she is a part of Maryland racing. "That is how I wanted her to go out, with an exclamation point on it. That is how true champions go out." Silmaril joined the prestigious list of Maryland-bred millionaires with the victory, ending her career with a 36-16-7-3 line and $1,032,973 in earnings. Appropriately enough, Silmaril's three-year-old full sister Another Jewel broke her maiden in the prior race with J.D. Acosta aboard. That win gave Acosta his 999th career score. He would go on to ride at Charles Town in West Virginia later in the evening and score his milestone 1,000th victory in the 1ST race.
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