Silvery Starlet a Good One for Kimmel

No stranger to handling top-class fillies, veterinarian-turned-trainer John Kimmel may have another one on his hands in Silvery Starlet.           

Owned by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm, Silvery Starlet began her career in eye-opening fashion at Gulfstream Park on March 1. Under jockey Joel Rosario, the 4-year-old daughter of Unbridled’s Song had to steady early but made a powerful move to sweep past horses on the outside around the far turn and kept going, winning by 1 ½ lengths.           

A half-sister to Grade 1 winners Roman Ruler and El Corredor, Silvery Starlet ($23.60) was purchased for $1 million at the 2011 Keeneland September yearling sale. She ran 8 ½ furlongs in 1:42.96 on a firm turf course to give Kimmel his first win of the Champions meet.            

“She made a quick move, and she had been training really well in the morning,” Kimmel said. “Obviously, she has a lot of pedigree and is a filly they paid a lot of money for. I had her last year and we were just about ready to run her and she came up with a physical problem. We had to stop on her and she got six or seven months off. Hopefully, our patience will pay off. It looks like she might have a nice future ahead of her.”           

Silvery Starlet had breezed six times for Kimmel at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, prior to her debut.           

“She had a tibial stress fracture, and there was no surgery or anything. We just decided to give her some time,” Kimmel said. “Mandy’s a very patient woman and she decided to give her maybe a little more time than is standard. We were able to have her ready for the meet here this winter.            

Kimmel said the plan is continue being patient with Silvery Starlet regarding where and when she runs back, and didn’t rule out switching surfaces down the road.           

“I’m not sure she can’t handle the dirt,” he said. “She’s got a lot of dirt in her pedigree. We’ll just kind of take it step by step and probably come back in an a-other-than and let her get a lot of confidence in herself. That’s always been me with these fillies, and I’ve had a lot of decent ones over the years. They get some confidence in themselves and you try not to over-place them and get them beat, because it doesn’t take much to get them to sulk. The next thing, you’re having to give them time to get their  mind right again.”           

Having trained full-time since 1988, Kimmel peaked with 105 wins and nearly $5.5 million in purses in 2001, three years before winning the Florida Derby (G1) with New York-bred Friends Lake. Among the top fillies he has trained are Grade 1 winners Twist Afleet, Pompeii, Catinca, Golden Bri and Hidden Lake, who won the Eclipse Award as champion older female of 1997.            

“It’s been a long time between drinks for me to have a nice horse,” said Kimmel, whose last graded stakes win came with Vexor in the 2011 Nashua (G2). “Mandy’s been great and she has supported me with some nice horses, and that’s what it takes. It’s not like you forgot how to train a horse; it’s about having the horses.”