Silentio denies Summer Front in Citation photo

Silentio and Summer Front matched strides down the stretch and crossed the

wire together. The large head of Silentio kept his nostril in front of the more

elegant Summer Front, in a final time of 1:40 3/5 for 1 1/16 grassy miles.

"When they hit the wire together, I thought we got beat," Mandella said. "I

walked down dejected because if this horse gets beat an inch again after he got

beat an inch (by Suggestive Boy) in the Kilroe Mile (last March 2 at Santa

Anita), it was going to be pretty tough to take.

"When Summer Front came to him I thought he was going to go right by, but

when Silentio switched to his right lead, he kind of found his rhythm again.

"I'm really proud of him because he outran his odds (third at 31-1) in the

Breeders' Cup Mile and proved everybody wrong, and today he proved me wrong

because I didn't think he could win on this soft turf course."

"It's hard to tell who won when they come down there like that," Bejarano

said. "It was very, very close. I always try to put my horse's head down right

on the wire. He had a great trip, but I had to take a chance at the

three-eighths coming between horses because he wasn't handling the course 100

percent and I didn't want to go around."

"It's tough to swallow getting beat like that," Summer Front's rider Joe

Bravo said. "He was so comfortable and relaxed and I was ecstatic on the first

turn. With the way the pace was going, he was so comfortable underneath me, so

nice."

"He was very relaxed at the back of the pack," assistant trainer Christophe

Lorieul said of Summer Front, "and the rider moved at the right time. When you

look at the replay, the other horse had his head down right on the wire. They

both ran great. We just got the bad part of it."

Winning Prize held third, another three-quarters of a length adrift, and

connections believed that the turf condition played a role.

"He was using a little more energy than he would have had to if the track

wasn't so slippery," jockey Corey Nakatani said. "Every time he tried to get

into it, the turf would break away from him a little. The one thing you don't

want to do is take away his natural speed."

"It was just a little bit slick for him," Hall of Fame trainer Neil Drysdale

said, "but I thought he ran very well. These are three very nice horses."

Big Bane

Theory reported home fourth, followed by Bio Pro, My Best Brother and the

tailed-off Bright Thought. He Be Fire N Ice was scratched.

Silentio paid $5 to win while improving his own resume to 10-4-1-4, $626,960,

all amassed on turf. A debut maiden winner at Santa Anita in his only start as a

juvenile, the Silent Name colt cleared his entry-level allowance condition in

his comeback 11 months later at Del Mar. He suffered his first loss when third

in a second-level allowance back at Santa Anita, but rebounded with a determined

score in last December's Sir Beaufort.

His four-year-old campaign opened with a third in the February 2 Arcadia and

a near-miss in the March 2 Frank E. Kilroe Mile, where he lost a tight photo to

Suggestive Boy. After a subpar last of five to Wise Dan in the April 12 Maker's

46 Mile at Keeneland, Silentio was spelled. The dark bay returned with a close

third to Obviously in the August 25 Del Mar Mile, his only stepping stone to

another third in the Breeders' Cup Mile.

The Kentucky-bred Silentio is out of the unraced A.P. Indy mare Listen A. P.,

a full sister to Grade 2-placed Listen Indy. Silentio's second dam, multiple

stakes queen and Group 1-placed Ecoute, is also the ancestress of Group 3 scorer

Surfrider and Group 3-placed stakes victress Enticement.

Silentio hails from the family of French highweights Green Tune and Pas de

Reponse, as well as Canadian Hall of Famer Northernette and English/Irish

champion and world-renowned sire Storm Bird.

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