Silent Heart winning an allowance at Gulfstream Park Jan. 12. (Ryan Thompson)
Son of Keeneland Fan Favorite Heart To Heart
Keeneland Release
At first glance, Terry Hamilton’s homebred Silent Heart – an entrant in Sunday’s Palisades (L) – does not resemble his sire, Heart to Heart, but their trainer, Brian Lynch, sees a number of similarities in the two horses.
“He has the tenacity his father had on the track,” Lynch said about the 3-year-old Silent Heart. “He is very competitive, has speed and seems to be getting better all the time. He is on the small side, and Heart to Heart wasn’t a real big horse at that stage of his career either. He looks completely black, and we didn’t see that in his father (a bay).”
“His mind is the same – a real cool, calm horse,” Hamilton said. “I think he’s gonna be a runner like Heart to Heart. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. If he can be anywhere close to his dad, he’ll be a special horse.”
Hamilton raced Heart to Heart, the 2014 champion 3-year-old colt in Canada and a popular runner at Keeneland because of the heart-shaped marking on his forehead that inspired his name along with his game, front-running style. He made nine starts here, highlighted by his 1¾-length score in the 2018 Maker’s 46 Mile (G1) (now the Maker’s Mark Mile) at age 7; was a close second in the 2016 and 2017 renewals of the Maker’s 46 Mile; and was second in the 2017 Shadwell Turf Mile (G1). With 15 wins, including 13 stakes victories, in 41 starts over seven seasons, Heart to Heart bankrolled $2,035,090.
Silent Heart, a member of Heart to Heart’s first crop of foals, never has been worse than third in five races. In his first two races, Silent Heart was the runner-up on the Horseshoe Indianapolis turf and the Churchill Downs dirt. He then won two in a row at Gulfstream Park, on the grass and the all-weather surface.
The colt enters the Palisades off a third-place effort at Gulfstream in the 1-mile Colonel Liam (L) on the turf on March 2 in his only try beyond 5 furlongs.
“At Gulfstream he (mostly) got a chance to run only five-eighths,” Lynch said. “I had the option of the Palisades or the Transylvania ([G3] Presented by Keeneland Select on April 5 at 1 1/16 miles on grass), but I thought he would be more effective with the cutback to 5½ furlongs in the Palisades. I can always stretch him out as time goes on.”
John Velazquez has the mount on Silent Heart from post 5 in the Palisades, which attracted 12 3-year-old colts and two more on the also-eligible list.
Hamilton will miss the Palisades because he is in Phoenix to attend the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four. He plans to be here later in the meet.
