Silver Whistle Nips Ramazutti in Pan American

Stronach Stable's 4-year-old Silver Whistle finally wore down 30-to-1 outsider Ramazutti in the final strides of Saturday's $150,000 Captain Morgan Pan American Handicap (gr. IIIT) at Gulfstream Park to score by a neck.

Ramazutti took command early in the 1 ½ miles turf test and simply refused to give way until just yards before the finish line. Silver Whistle, ridden by Edgar Prado, stopped the teletimer in 2:24 1/5 over the 'firm' ground for his first graded stakes win. The time was well off the course mark set by Honey Ryder of 2:23.07 two races earlier on the Gulfstream card.

"I was able to stay behind the speed and bide my time," Prado said. "So it worked out beautiful because I was able to run down that other horse (Ramazutti) the last part of it."

Go Deputy was the 9-to-5 favorite and finished third, two lengths behind the top two.

Trained by Bill Mott, Silver Whistle is a roan/gray Kentucky homebred son of Alphabet Soup. Silver Whistle reached the winner's circle as the 5-to-2 second choice in Saturday's field of nine older horses after losing photo decisions in each of his last three starts going back to a nose defeat in the Hall of Fame (gr. IIT) last year at Saratoga. The victory, worth $90,000, was the third in nine starts for Silver Whistle, who has earned $250,330 in his career.

"It took him all the way to the wire to finally win one of these," Mott said. "I guess he needed the extra distance. He had a nice trip inside. We knew he would be able to step up to this level of competition. He had some near misses at Saratoga and it looked like he could stay. He did it in decent company. Hopefully, there's more to come."

Trainer Todd Pletcher sent out Ramazutti, who set soft fractions of :24 1/5, :48 2/5 and 1:13 1/5, and Go Deputy.

Silver Whistle paid $7.20, $5 and $2.80. Ramazutti returned $32.80 and $7.80. Go Deputy was $2.40 to show.

Einstein, aiming for his fourth straight victory as the co-second choice at odds of 5-2, found his best stride too late and finished fourth. Sabre D'Argent, Scooter Roach, Broadway View, and El Duque followed him.

(Chart, Equibase)