San Siro Goes Distance In Greenwood Cup

Basketball admin September 19, 2026 0 Comments

The longer the distance the better for San Siro, who made a decisive move on the far turn and rolled to a 4 1/4-length victory in the $150,000 Greenwood Cup Stakes at Parx Racing Saturday.

Ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, the 5-year-old Classic Empire gelding owned by Andrew Farm, Mountmellick Farm, Ocean Reef Racing, White Mountain Stables and Bryan Reed notched his first stakes win. He has run in nine graded stakes with a second, three thirds and two fourths.

Longshot Silent Mode led the field by the stands through a quarter mile in :26.42 and a half mile in :51.66. San Siro was sixth as they crossed under the wire the first time in the 1 1/2-mile race, but Gaffalione moved him up heading the clubhouse turn and was only three lengths back in fifth as they straightened onto the backstretch.

Silent Mode maintained the advantage, chased by My Imagination and Carlo Rapido running in tandem, as Gaffalione and San Siro edged into fourth and favorite and 2025 Melbourne Cup runner Parchment Party was sixth on the rail. Carlo Rapido held a slight advantage into the far turn, but Gaffalione made the lead before they straightened for home and was never threatened in the stretch. The final time was 2:33.51.

San Siro, a $150,000 yearling purchase, improved his career record to 6-1-5 in 23 starts with $680,262 in earnings. He was bred in Kentucky Frankfort Park Farm, Bemart, Equinow, Valle Falcone & K. Byrne from the winning Bernardini mare Catenaria.

Winning trainer Brendan Walsh got the first stakes victory of his career when he captured the 2014 Greenwood Cup at Parx, then a Grade 3 race, with Cary Street.

Greenwood Cup Quotes

Winning jockey Tyler Gaffalione: “That was just a steering job. He was great. Last time I learned don’t give up on him. He knows what he’s doing out there. He’s an old pro. Just let him do his thing and when it’s time to pick them up, just help him out a little bit. I wanted to just get him into that rhythm and just make sure we had a good racetrack for him. We’ve been looking forward to stretching him out. Brendan has always had the idea that this would be his game, but opportunities weren’t there at the moment. He’s really coming into his own and they’ve done a great job with him. Going around the far turn coming into the stretch, my horse was going really easy and it just came into my head that (Parchment Party) was going to be coming so I didn’t want to play around too much and kept my horse going. He responded so well.”

Charlie Lynch, assistant to winning trainer Brendan Walsh: “This horse has been up with us in Saratoga and has been training well up there. The distance was never going to be a question for him. The 1 1/8 miles (he had run that in his last two starts) was probably as short as he wants to go, but he got it done in the last (at Saratoga August 8) and coming in here we were pretty confident going 1 1/2 today. This horse is the coolest horse to be around. He has been in our barn for a long time now and to win a stake with him is pretty special. He has been with us since he was a 2-year-old and he’s 5 now and he has just been a testament to Brendan and the team. He continues to show up every time and there is never a dull moment with him. He shows up and puts in his best effort. He travels really well and seemed to like it here today.”

Jockey John Velazquez (Parchment Party, second): “He ran good. He didn’t give me what I thought early in the race. The eventual winner opened up five [lengths] on the turn, that was it. He kind of went through the motions today, I mean he still ran good and still was there, but he went through the motions. I was in trouble at the five-eighths pole I already asked him to hold my position and I couldn’t hold it. By the time I got to the three-eighths pole, I saw the other horse was gone, and I knew he was the horse to beat.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2026 at 4:47 PM.