War at Sea wears down Silent Poet in Golden Gate Handicap

Wheeling back in just seven days off a fourth-place finish in the Lure Stakes at Santa Anita, Southern California invader War At Sea picked up his second lifetime stakes victory in Golden Gate Fields’ feature race on Saturday afternoon, the $100,000 Grade 3 Golden Gate Handicap.

After a clean break from all the runners in the contest, 9-1 chance Silent Poet was keen on setting the pace. Jockey Evin Roman was able to slow the pace down, and Silent Poet carved out moderate fractions of 24.29, 49.48, and 1:13.61.

Turning into the stretch, Silent Poet opened up the lead to a length or so and kicked on. War At Sea, who had been placed in midfield by jockey Frank Alvarado while always traveling within a couple lengths of the lead, searched for racing room in a stacked-up group turning for home, tipped outside in upper stretch, rallied strongly down the middle part of the track in the final furlong and wore down Silent Poet in the shadow of the wire. War At Sea completed the mile and one-sixteenth over the Tapeta in 1:44.48 and hit the wire just a head in front of the runner-up finisher.

Sent off at odds of 6-1, War at Sea paid $15.80 to win, $6.00 to place, and $3.00 to show. Silent Poet paid $10.40 to place and $6.60 to show while third place finisher Tripoli returned $3.20 to show. Tripoli and fourth-place finisher Lammas went off at 5-2. Il Bellator was next in terms of odds followed by I’mgonnabesomebody and Supermazel.

War at Sea, a 4-year-old colt trained by Ron Ellis, was purchased for $525,000 at the OBS 2-year-olds in training sale of 2021 by owner Doubledown Stables. The son of War Front was bred in Kentucky by Lewis Thoroughbred Breeding and has accumulated a race record 14: 4-0-4. Picking up $60,000 for the Golden Gate Handicap victory, War At Sea improved his career earnings to $278,472.