Silver Max Scurries Away in Transylvania

Mark Bacon and Dana Wells’ Silver Max took the lead out of the gate and cruised to a 5 1/2-length victory over Travel Advisory to win the 24th running of the $100,000 Transylvania (G3) for 3-year-olds on opening day of the 15-day Spring Meet at Keeneland.

Trained by Dale Romans and ridden by Robby Albarado, Silver Max covered the 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:41.81 and posted the largest margin of victory in the history of the race. The victory in the Transylvania was the second for Albarado, who won the race in 2008 with Boss Lafitte.

The victory was worth $60,000 and increased Silver Max’s earnings to $169,475 with a record of 9-3-5-0. Silver Max is a Kentucky-bred son of Badge of Silver out of the Kissin Kris mare Kissin Rene.

Silver Max led the field through fractions of :23.46, :47.37 and 1:11.81 with a daylight lead over State of Play and Icon Ike, who were in closest pursuit. Turning for home, Icon Ike moved into second only to see Silver Max spurt away.

Silver Max returned $8.60, $4.20 and $2.80 as the third choice in the field of six. Travel Advisory, ridden by Manny Cruz, rallied for second and returned $6.20 and $4 with State of Play finishing another 1 ¼ lengths back in third under John Velazquez and paying $2.80 to show. Favored Monastic finished 2 1/4 lengths back in fourth and was followed in order by Icon Ike and Wayward Sailor.