Heste Sport’s homebred five-year-old Not So Quiet (Silent Name (Jpn) thundered past the favoured graded stakes winner City Boy down the stretch to take the $150,000 Vice Regent Stakes featured on the rainy Sunday afternoon program at Woodbine Racetrack.
The Vice Regent, which was contested over one mile on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course for its first 23 editions, moved to the inner turf this year and was run as a five-furlong sprint for Ontario-bred three-year-olds and up.
Jockey Rafael Hernandez and trainer Mark Casse, one of the hottest combinations of the meet, teamed up for the win with the Silent Name-Mona Moon gelding, who returned $12.60 as the 5-1 fourth choice.
Alicia’s Kid (Leo Salles) led briefly out of the gates from midfield, but insider Forester’s Turn (Kazushi Kimura) dashed to the front with City Boy (David Moran) and those two battled head-to-head through an opening quarter-mile in :22.03. Meanwhile, Not So Quiet and Hernandez loomed as the danger just to their outside in third.
City Boy eventually shook off Forester’s Turn and drew clear down the stretch, but Not So Quiet tracked down the 5-2 favourite in the final stages to score by three-quarters of a length in :57.19 over firm turf. Nevaeh’s Dream (Steve Bahen) closed with a fury from the backfield to edge out a determined Alicia’s Kid for third prize in the 10-horse field.
Not So Quiet, who finished third in the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier Stakes and fourth in the Shepperton this summer, earned the first stakes victory of his career and has now won two of five starts since his return to racing this year under the tutelage of Casse. The win was his fifth from 11 starts lifetime.
Heste Sport of Rene and Darlene Hunderup, who operate Norse Ridge Farm in King, ON, has raced horses at Woodbine for more than 20 years and is also one of the leading owners and breeders of Quarter Horses at Ajax Downs. Not So Quiet’s dam Mona Moon, by Perigee Moon, produced one other foal, winner Moon Over Victoria.
The Vice Regent was part of Casse’s second four-win day of the meet. Hernandez ended the 11-race card with a triple.
Following the stakes race, Woodbine Entertainment held a moment of silence on the turf course to honour longtime horsewoman Martha Gonzalez, who passed away this morning at the age of 58 after a courageous battle with cancer. Woodbine’s jockeys also paid tribute to the longtime assistant trainer and wife of Nick Gonzalez by wearing a black band on their right leg during the running of the first race.
Jockeys at Woodbine wore a black band on their right leg in honour of the late Martha Gonzalez. (R1- Tizlegal Jockey Rafael Hernandez.Woodbine/ Michael Burns Photo)
