9-for-9 filly Silent Rule sprints Thursday at Thistledown

Cross-entered in two races Thursday afternoon at Thistledown, undefeated filly Silent Rule will go in the $100,000 Best of Ohio Honey Jay Stakes sprint as she tries to run her record to 10-for-10.

Trainer Jay Bernardini had been leaning all along toward going in the opener, which has a scheduled post time of 12:50 p.m. EDT at the North Randall, Ohio, racecourse.

Click here for Thistledown entries and results.

“I’m running in the sprint,” Bernardini said in a text message. “Generous Lover would have had to abandon ship in the long race, and I likely still would have run her in the sprint.”

Silent Rule was scratched from the $100,000 Best of Ohio Pay the Man, which goes 1 1/8 miles on the recently troubled main track at Thistledown. Instead of that race against fillies and mares, Bernardini’s 4-year-old Street Boss filly owned by John and Linda Hoctel will race against eight males going six furlongs. It will be Silent Rule’s second time facing the boys.

Drawing post 6 with her usual jockey Brandon Tapara up, Silent Rule is 3-1 on the morning line for the Honey Jay. Six-year-old gelding Empire’s Fire, who has won 5 of 7 races in the past year, is the 7-2 second choice coming off a neck victory against state-bred rivals in a $26,200 allowance race July 18 at Belterra Park.

There are five $100,000 stakes for state-bred horses Thursday at Thistledown. The track had all but one race canceled across eight cards last month when one horse died and the racing surface fell short of Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority standards. Since repeated inspections and a resumption of racing Aug. 4, there have been no reported injuries at the track.