Silent Bird gives Desormeaux emotional Midnight Lute Stakes win
By Jonathan Lintner
That there wasn’t a stewards inquiry into Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Midnight Lute Stakes was a bit of a surprise after Silent Bird was rushed to the early lead and remained there in a photo finish.
Coming off the turn, jockey Kent Desormeaux moved Silent Bird back to the rail, appearing to stall Calculator’s run entering the stretch. While stewards look at every result, it's likely they saw the leader a full length ahead and riding his race.
Silent Bird then held off a surging Tough Sunday, the fan-favorite horse born blind and deaf and now nearly a graded stakes winner, in a neck victory that meant much to Desormeaux. The Hall of Famer rode the horse’s sire, 2009 Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird.
“I saw a gray horse trying to fill the line on the fence. I covered that hole and asked my Summer Bird progeny — my New York Triple Crown winner’s baby — to help me out, and he did.”
“…That was the most fulfilling part…To have ridden his daddy, and for him to look like him, feel like him, travel like him — fond memories.”
The 5-year-old Silent Bird won his first graded stakes for trainer Mark Glatt and owner Norman Stables. He’s lightly raced having entered Saturday with eight previous starts. The horse won five of his first six starts before jumping to the stakes level.
Summer Bird returned from a layoff dating back to August, given extra time to heal an abscess.