No Silent Maintains Sharp Form in Eddie D

In hand while four wide at the top of the stretch, No Silent, with Gary Stevens at the controls, easily overhauled pacesetting favorite Midnight Storm and Tyler Baze with three sixteenths of a mile to run en route to an impressive 1 ¾ length win going 6 ½ furlongs down Santa Anita’s hillside turf course in Saturday’s Grade III, $100,000 Eddie D. Stakes. 

Trained by Gary Mandella and owned by Double JH Stable, Inc., No Silent notched his third win in a row and his first-ever stakes victory by taking the Eddie D., named for retired Hall of Fame riding great Eddie Delahoussaye, who was on hand from his native Louisiana to present the trophy.

Off at 6-1 in a field of 11 three year olds and up, No Silent, a 6-year-old Kentucky-bred gelding by Silent Name, got the distance in 1:13.04 and paid $15.80, $7.00 and $4.40. 

“He was a stallion before when I rode him (in 2013),” said Stevens.  “He was very aggressive and tough to deal with and I was lucky to win a race with him (July, 2013).  They gelded him and Gary showed a lot of patience, much like Papa Mandella.

“Today, he broke clean, he got a perfect stalking trip and Gary has just done a good job with him, been very patient.  He’s run three great races now off a long layoff and this horse is just loving his job.  He made my job easy.”

No Silent, who improved his overall mark to 23-7-8-1, picked up $60,000 for the win, increasing his lifetime earnings to $389,877.

“He’s really become a subtle, more relaxed horse,” said Mandella.  “…It’s been why he’s been able to stay so happy and enabled us to build on that and have every race better than the last one…I thought it was really impressive.  He ran the best race of his life, as a 6-year-old.”

Ridden by Martin Garcia and trained by David Hofmans, longshot Melatonin drew the far outside and flew late to be second, finishing a half length in front of second choice Jimmy Bouncer. 

“I don’t think he cared for the turf too much coming down the hillside,” said Hofmans.  “Martin said he was stumbling up there, but when he angled out late, he really came running.  I think he prefers a firmer course, but he really ran well.”

Off at 28-1, Melatonin paid $20.80 and $11.80.

Jimmy Bouncer, who was ridden by Mario Gutierrez, was disqualified for interference in the stretch and placed fourth, behind the official third place finisher Toowindytohaulrox.

Ridden by Tiago Pereira and off at 8-1, Toowindytohaulrox paid $5.00 to show.