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Gray Colt by Wagon Limit-So Ritzy by Darn That Alarm
Owner:Buckram Oak Farm
Trainer: Ralph Ziadie
At 2
WON Hopeful G1
2nd What A Pleasure
At 3
2nd Holy Bull G3
3rd Fountain of Youth G2
At 4
3rd Commwealth BC G2
2nd Met Mile G1
Last Start: Met Mile (G1), May 30, 2005
Next Start: TBD
Horsehat.com Fast Fact: Silver Wagon’s
sire Wagon Limit defeated Skip Away in the 1998 Jockey Club
Gold Cup.
Man o War, Buckpasser, Secretariat, What A Pleasure, Affirmed,
Chief’s Crown, Gulch, Summer Squall and Favorite Trick
have all won the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga. In 2003 Silver
Wagon added his name to that honor roll.
Going into the race on that last August weekend of the famed
Saratoga meet, most expected the Hopeful to be little more
than the coronation of undefeated 2-5 favorite Chapel Royal.
When the field circled the far turn it was indeed that rival
that Silver Wagon had to beat. With an eighth of a mile
to go the grey son of Wagon Limit darted to the inside of
Chapel Royal and simply blew him away, winning the race
by four lengths in 1:23 2/5. Also left in his wake was eventual
Champagne (G1) winner and Eclipse Award finalist Birdstone
and multiple graded-stakes winner Limehouse. Just twenty
days prior to the Hopeful, Silver Wagon had defeated his
highly regarded stablemate Eurosilver, who would go on to
win the G2 Breeders’ Futurity at Keenlenad.
After the Hopeful, trainer Ralph Ziadie bypassed the major
juvenile stakes that lay ahead and took Silver Wagon back
to his base in South Florida to “get him ready for
the big ones next year.”
Unfortunatley that strategy did not pay off for Ziadie
and owners Buckram Oak Farm. After his third place finish
in the Fountain of Youth (G2), it was announced that Silver
Wagon would undergo surgery to remove small bone chips in
both knees.
Silver Wagon is now back at the races. He won an Allowance
contest at Gulfstream Park on February 6, and ran 4th in
the G2 New Orleans Handicap in March. He then ran third
in the G2 Commonwealth BC at Keeneland.
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