Silver maximizes advantage on front end in Transylvania

Travel Advisory crossed the wire 1 1/4 lengths to the good of State of Play,

who had at one point dropped back to fifth before coming again for third.

Monastic made brief headway into third, only to tread water and check in another

2 1/4 lengths adrift in fourth. Icon Ike and Wayward Sailor completed the order

of finish. Saturday Launch was scratched in favor of Saturday's Grade 3 Illinois

Derby at Hawthorne.

Silver Max now sports a record of 9-3-5-0, $169,475. The bay finished second

in his first five starts, finally breaking through at Gulfstream Park on January

13. Making a rare try on the main track for the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes, he

faded to a well-beaten fifth, but rebounded back on the Gulfstream turf on March

9.

Silver Max, a son of Badge of Silver, reminded Albarado of his sire. The

jockey had ridden Badge of Silver in his first six races, highlighted by a romp

in the Grade 3 Risen Star in 2003, and mentioned that Silver Max has a similarly

high cruising speed.

Bred by Steve C. Snowden, Seth Lauffer and Will Lauffer in Kentucky, Silver

Max brought $20,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling. He is out of the

winning Kissin Kris mare Kissin Rene, making him a half-brother to stakes scorer

True Kiss.

Kissin Rene is herself a three-quarter sister to Canadian champion and

millionaire Kiss a Native. She is also a half-sister to Grade 3 victor Prince of

the Mt. and to Clever Monique, the dam of Grade 1-winning millionaire and sire

Yes It's True.

Silver Max's second dam is Monique Rene, a 15-time stakes heroine in

Louisiana in the early 1980s.

Silver Max is inbred 4x4 to Epsom Derby star, English/Irish champion and influential sire Roberto.