Is Silver Max championship material?
It’s Million Week, Racefans! Highlighted by two of the most important races on the American turf landscape, in the Arlington Million, and female counterpart, the Beverly D. Stakes, Million Day can be easily called the most important day of grass racing in the nation. Including the brand new American St. Leger, there will be four major races for turf lovers to celebrate Saturday at the Suburban Chicago race place. Last of the big four, but certainly not least this year, is the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes. The race may be restricted to three-year-olds, but the field has come up anything but limited. As a matter of fact, the one horse I am looking most forward to seeing run on the big day is Silver Max, and as good as the speedy turf runner has been this year; I am seriously considering whether the bargain basement $20,000 yearling purchase is quickly progressing into a champion.
When the three-year-old son of Badge of Silver enters the starting gate as the likely favorite in the $500,000 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park, it will mark his seventh consecutive race on the turf, following a failed attempt against Algorithms and Hansen in the Gulfstream slop. In each of his last six races he has knocked his competition off their hooves with consistent free-wheeling displays of talent and speed.
Owned by Mark Bacon and Dana Wells, Silver Max sports a 10-7-3-0 record on the sod. After showing promise with three second place finishes in his three races on the lawn as a juvenile, the Dale Romans trainee scored a sharp victory in a maiden race on Gulfstream Park's turf course to begin the year. His one attempt on the dirt this year, in the Grade 3 Holy Bull, resulted in a fifth place finish. After returning to turf, the rest, as they say, has been history. His excellent adventure began while still in Florida with a 3 ¾ length runaway over allowance/optional claiming rivals at Gulfstream on March 9. Next came his first stakes win as he romped by 5 ½ length in Keeneland's Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes.
My first opportunity to see him in person came on Kentucky Oaks Day, and he proved well worth the wait. His 2 ¾ length score that day told me that he was much more than a one-hit wonder, as there was some serious competition in the Grade 2 American Turf at Churchill Downs. I was there again to see Silver Max in his fourth straight victory as he waltzed to a never-in-doubt, two length score in the Arlington Classic. After all of these wins at 1 1/16 miles, he dropped down to a mile for the Oliver Stakes, and all he did was break the track record, completing a mile over the Indiana Downs' turf course in 1:33 4/5, leaving future American Derby winner, Cozzetti, in his wake by nearly seven lengths in the process.
His most recent race may be the most telling of all, as he was not only tested on yielding turf, but also at the extended distance of 1 ¼ miles. He passed the test with flying colors, despite dealing with a horse who rushed past him on the backstretch due to saddle slippage, winning the Grade 2 Virginia Derby by a measured length against a solid field.
We now know that Silver Max can handle different courses, (his win streak has come at six different tracks) different course conditions, and at distances up to ten furlongs. Now we have seeing him run against even stronger competition to look forward to, and the Secretariat will definitely take things up a notch. In his first Grade 1 stakes affair, Silver Max will face the likes of Summer Front, (undefeated on the turf) and Daddy Long Legs (winner of the UAE Derby.)
The old pro, Acclamation, may be the current King of American turf, but Silver Max is simply doing too much to be ignored, and a win in the Secretariat on Saturday will move him one step closer to the pinnacle of U.S. grass racing.
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