Bill Boland | Horse Racing Free Tips

Oaklawn to Honor Hall of Famers

Oaklawn will host its first even Hall of Fame Day Apr. 16. The day, honoring members of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, will be highlighted by several special events, including winner's circle presentations. The feature race will be the GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. Race fans will receive a commemorative poster while supplies last, and an autograph session with Hall of Fame members will take place on the north end of the Grandstand from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“There are only a few other racing towns that can garner the enthusiasm and love for racing as Hot Springs, Arkansas, and we know this event will be a huge hit among our fans,” Oaklawn President Louis Cella said. “We are excited by the response we have received from the Hall of Fame members in the first year of this event, and we look forward to honoring some of our industry's greats.”

Scheduled to appear are 11-time Oaklawn leading trainer Steve Asmussen, Bill Boland, Calvin Borel, Ramon Dominguez, Earlie Fires, Sandy Hawley, Chris McCarron, Bill Mott, Don Pierce, Laffit Pincay Jr., Edgar Prado, Jose Santos, Gary Stevens and Nick Zito.

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Boland Gets Stakes Win With Perfect Silent Cat In Aventura At Gulfstream

Although Perfect Silent Cat entered Saturday's $60,000 Aventura at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., as a maiden, trainer Sharon Boland had a high level of confidence in the son of Tale of the Cat.

“I knew what I had,” Boland said. “You can make those moves when you know what you have running for you.”

Perfect Silent Cat rewarded Boland's faith by providing her with her first stakes victory on her own, although she is hardly a newcomer to the stakes game.

The daughter of Bill Boland, the Hall of Fame jockey who won the 1950 Kentucky Derby aboard Middleground, Sharon has been training and working with horses for more than 30 years.

“Unfortunately, because my father was a steward, they wouldn't let me run horses in my name. In those days, they thought it was a conflict of interest, so I took a back seat and let my [then] husband [multiple graded stakes-winning trainer Anthony Mitchell] run them in his name,” said Boland, who has 21 horses stabled at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, in her second year of training her own public stable.”

The Charles Fipke-bred Perfect Silent Cat ($27.20) was purchased for $6,000 in February at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Mixed Sale by Shamrock Highlands Thoroughbreds.

“The owner is a new client who bought him and brought him to our stable. We couldn't figure why he slipped through the cracks,” said Boland, whose 89-year-old father lives in Palm Coast, Fla., and plays golf frequently. “We found a few little things we were able to fix, and from the second we fixed his little issues, he's been a 100-percent performer who gives you everything. He's the nicest colt I've been around – just a class act.”

Perfect Silent Cat had run three prior races – an off-the-board debut on dirt, a third-place finish on turf, and a runner-up finish in the June 26 Not Surprising Stakes over a yielding Gulfstream turf course last time out. The Kentucky-bred colt was the beneficiary of a perfect trip under Luca Panici, pressing the pace outside Rabdan past fractions of :24.47 and :48.04 seconds for the first half mile of the mile overnight handicap before drawing away to a three-length score.

Perfect Silent Cat carried the low weight of 114 pounds, 10 fewer pounds than highweight Papetu, the 1-5 favorite who finished fourth following a rough trip in traffic. Perfect Silent Cat ran a mile over a sealed sloppy track in 1:36.35. Emperor's Cause finished second following a three-wide trip, a neck ahead of a tiring Rabdan, who was 1 ¼ lengths clear of Papetu, who had captured the Carry Back Stakes in his prior start.

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Sharon Boland, Daughter Of Hall Of Fame Jockey, Happy To Be ‘Back At The Races’

As she accepted congratulations from a stream of well-wishers at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., after winning Saturday's sixth race on the turf with 5-year-old mare Twirling Star, trainer Sharon Boland struggled to keep her emotions under control.

It wasn't just winning two races on a card under her own name for the first time that caused Boland to choke up. The occasion also gave her a chance to reflect on a lifetime around Thoroughbred racing that has provided rewards lasting far beyond the excitement of getting to the winner's circle.

“I was still breaking babies five or six years ago, but I was pretty much thinking about getting out of the game because it was changing so much. I had a lot of owners who said 'You need to be back at the races. This is what you love, and this is what your passion is.' So I came back, and it's paying off,” she said.

Boland, who also won the first race with 5-year-old gelding He's Royalty, has 12 horses in training at Tampa Bay Downs and six more babies at Lambholm South in Reddick, Fla., including a few she bred and “which I'm quite excited about.”

Boland learned to gallop horses at Lambholm South when it was known as Hobeau Farm and later galloped for trainers Bill Badgett and the late Sarah “Sally” Lundy.

Saturday's victories were her first of the meeting. He's Royalty, who broke his maiden in the 5 ½-furlong first, is owned by Bart Brookshire and was ridden by Mike Allen, while Wilmer Garcia rode Twirling Star for Boland and owners Anthony Ali, Khaleef Ali and Yanush Ali in the 1-mile sixth. The victory was the mare's second.

Boland is the daughter of National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame member Bill Boland, who won the 1950 Kentucky Derby on Middleground as a 16-year-old apprentice jockey. A day earlier, Boland had won the Kentucky Oaks on Ari's Mona. Before turning 17 that July, he earned the first of his two Belmont Stakes victories on Middleground. Boland and Middleground finished second in the Preakness to Hill Prince.

Bill Boland lives in Palm Coast, Fla., with his wife of 68 years, Sandy. In honor of his Kentucky Derby victory, Sharon named her property, which is in Reddick, Middleground Farm.

“My dad taught me everything I know, mostly about integrity,” Sharon said. “Meaning you've got to be able to go home and sleep at night. You do the business right, work hard, hay and oats and it will pay off. You treat people fairly and be honest, and that is what I try to do.”

Following Saturday's victories, Boland was just as happy for Allen, Garcia and her team that helps care for her horses on the Tampa Bay Downs backside. “You can't take credit for everything. It is 99 percent the horse, but it takes all of us and all the hours you put in.

“I have a lot of people supporting me, and winning two today means the world to me.”

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