Trainer Woody Stephens' five consecutive Belmonts and Richard Mandella's four Pacific Classics in a row still stand by themselves, but a racing feat in the same league is this rut trainer Julio Canani's gotten himself into at Hollywood Park.
Ho-hum. Another Shoemaker Breeders' Cup Mile, another 1-2 finish from the Canani barn. The really hard part is running first and second in the same stake with the same horses in successive years, as Canani did Sunday when Silic outlegged his stablemate Ladies Din by a half-length. No definitive research is available, but this is believed to be the first time the same horses have run 1-2 back to back in a Grade I race.
Because the sore-footed Silic hadn't run in more than seven months--since he won the Breeders' Cup Mile at Gulfstream Park on Nov. 6--Ladies Din loomed as the stronger half of the entry this time, and afterward Canani even suggested that a better trip for Ladies Din might have reversed Sunday's order at the wire.
"I don't want to take anything away from anybody," Canani said, "but that poor sucker [Ladies Din] was 11 wide."
Ridden by Corey Nakatani, Silic paid $3.40 to win after running the mile on grass in 1:33 1/5, not quite as fast as his 1:32 4/5 last year, when Ladies Din lost by a nose. The French-bred Silic, a 5-year-old, has made seven starts--all at a mile--for Canani, his fourth win being worth $304,800 to an ownership group headed by Terry Lanni, Kenneth Poslosky and Bernard Schiappa.
In winning, Silic swept away from the pace-setter, First Titanium, with an eighth of a mile to run.
"When I called on him, he was there," said Nakatani, who has been aboard for all of Silic's U.S. wins. "He was training real good coming into the race, and the question was the long layoff. But he's a special horse, a champion. I got the right trip with the right horse. You have to give Julio credit with what he did with this horse after the layoff. It shows what kind of trainer he is."
Sharan finished third, two lengths behind Silic, and White Heart, who had won both of his starts since joining trainer Neil Drysdale's barn, ran fourth, four lengths in arrears.
"I had to push Silic to make this race," said Canani, whose problems with the horse's right front foot started when he lost a shoe at the start of his U.S. debut, at Hollywood in November of 1998. This year, the first time he worked at Hollywood Park, Silic lost both of the protective bar shoes he was wearing.
