Even-money favourite Be Vewy Vewy Quiet and jockey Sheena Ryan were victorious in the $125,000 Clarendon Stakes for Ontario-bred two-year-olds on Saturday afternoon at Woodbine Racetrack.
Be Vewy Vewy Quiet dueled inside of Water Polo (Omar Moreno) for the top spot through fractions of :22.33 and :45.63 before kicking clear down the stretch to score by two lengths in 1:03.90 over five and a half furlongs on the Tapeta track. Eskiminzin (Patrick Husbands) swept three-high turning for home and came on for second-place while Aheadbyacentury (Jesse Campbell) edged out Sent From Heaven (Eurico Rosa Da Silva) to show. Water Polo finished fifth and Differential (Gary Boulanger) completed the field.
The homebred Silent Name-Advanced Green gelding is now undefeated in two career starts for trainer Robert Tiller and owners Frank Di Giulio Jr., Anthony D’Onofrio and J. Peri.
“He breaks well, Bob’s done a great job teaching him from the gate and I decided to sit with that one just so we’d have a clean trip,” said Ryan, noting that the winner finished strong. “He was just getting warmed up, he didn’t even want to pull up.”
Be Vewy Vewy Quiet’s Clarendon win marked the second stakes victory for the Ryan-Tiller combination following a win last year in the Bull Page Stakes for two-year-olds with Dragon’s Cry.
“She’s a good horsewoman and she works very hard,” said Tiller of his winning rider. “She has a very positive attitude and that’s very important to me. Even when you’re going bad, keep going, don’t let them take you alive. You’ve got to get up the next morning and you’ve got to have that positive attitude and she just gets around the stable area and works for everybody. She helped me out this spring when times were tough, you know, we had a little shortage of exercise riders so I felt I owed her a horse that could maybe run a little bit.
“He’s turned out better than I even thought he would,” continued Tiller. “I really liked this race today because he really had all the worst of it. He was under strain all the way and showed me something from the eighth pole home so we’re thrilled. And it’s a homebred for Frankie and his partners, and he’s a good horse, I think he looks like he’s a runner.”
Sent postward as the bettors’ choice, Be Vewy Vewy Quiet paid $4.20, $2.50 and $2.10 across the board. He combined with Eskiminzin ($4.10, $2.90) for a 1-3 exactor worth $12.30. A 1-3-5 triactor (Aheadbyacentury, $3.30 to show) paid $30.60 and a $1 superfecta of 1-3-5-6 (Sent From Heaven) returned $140.60.
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