SILENT TACTIC WINS FIERCE BATTLE WITH ZIHNAL IN OKLAHOMA DERBY AT REMINGTON PARK

For Immediate Release
Sunday, September 27, 2026

Silent Tactic brushed off his huge loss in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers in late August to run one of the best races of his life, to win the Grade 3 $400,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sunday at Remington Park.

Silent Tactic and Zihnal, co-favorites at 3-2 odds, battled eyeball to eyeball down the stretch of the 1-1/8th mile race on the fast main track. Finally, Silent Tactic got Zihnal to blink in the late going, but not by much. The winner got up by a neck over Zihnal in the last jump.

Silent Tactic had slightly more money bet on him to win than Zihnal and paid $5 to win, $2.60 to place and $2.20 to show. The Hell We Did (11-1) and Crupper (33-1) ran solid races to get third and fourth, respectively.

One had to wonder what happened to Silent Tactic in the Travers when he was 39 lengths behind at the next-to-last call and then was eased with a “did-not-finish” next to his name in the charts. After all, Silent Tactic was the runner-up to Renegade at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., in the Grade 1 $1.5 million Arkansas Derby on March 28.

“You just have to cross a line through that last race,” said Caden Arthur, assistant trainer to Mark Casse with this horse. “He loved the dirt at Oaklawn. Jose (Ortiz) gave him a great ride.

Ortiz is the No. 1 rider in the country with his horses earning more than $42 million so far this year. His biggest triumphs include the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes with Golden Tempo, and the Dubai World Cup with Magnitude.

It couldn’t have been an easy day leading up to the Oklahoma Derby as Ortiz rode seven races at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. earlier on Sunday, winning one. Then his owners with Silent Tactic put him on a private flight to Oklahoma City after the ninth race there. That ninth went off at 3:55 p.m. and the Oklahoma Derby kicked from the gate at 8:51 p.m. All based on Central time.

“I’m thankful the owners flew me out here,” Ortiz said after his Derby win. Cristian Torres was originally named to ride Silent Tactic as he had at Oaklawn this spring but he could not make the trip after being involved in an accident at Churchill Downs last week that required a trip to the hospital and time off.

Silent Tactic is owned by John C. Oxley and Victoriam Farm of Tulsa, Okla. This wasn’t Oxley’s first rodeo. He won another Derby in 2001 – the Kentucky Derby with Monarchos. Oxley is a member of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame at Remington Park, inducted in 2011.

Ortiz was all out to win the Oklahoma Derby and he thinks there was a key factor in the victory.

“We broke clean in the race and I was able to cut the corner at the quarter pole,” he said. “That was a game changer.”

Silent Tactic saved all the ground while Zihnal tried to rally down the middle of the track amidst a troubled trip that saw him take up in the first turn of the race. Silent Tactic is a 3-year-old Kentucky-bred colt by Tacitus, out of the Gun Runner mare Magical Sign.

Silent Tactic was in many big races on the Kentucky Derby trail this spring including victory in the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, followed by a nose defeat in the Grade 2 $1 million Rebel Stakes, then a third in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby. After taking time off due to a bruised foot and missing the Kentucky Derby, Silent Tactic had a third-place finish in the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. and a win in the Grade 3 $1 million Southwest Stakes.

Silent Tactic earned $240,000 and was already a millionaire before the race, the richest horse in the field. He improved his record to nine starts, three wins, four seconds and one third for a total bankroll of $1,359,422.

Running time for Silent Tactic in the Oklahoma Derby was 1:50.31 on the fast track. He came from seventh place in the pack to take the lead and do battle at the top of the stretch. His fight with Zihnal was down the entire lane before anything was decided. Silent Tactic had cut into interior fractions of :23.35 for the first quarter-mile, :48.21 for the half-mile, 1:12.94 for three-quarters of a mile and 1:38.04 for the mile. It was the first win for all the connections for the Oklahoma Derby.

The rest of the order of finish past the top four in the race was Chad Allan (24-1) in fifth, Vintage Cowboy (28-1) sixth, J J Grey (10-1) seventh, and pacesetter Tricky Business (8-1) eighth. Pavlovian (16-1) was never a factor in the race as he went to his nose at the break of the gate, dumping his jockey David Cabrera to the ground. Cabrera did get up and walked off under his own power.

Remington Park racing continues next month, Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 1-3 with the first race nightly at 6:30pm-Central.

Remington Park has provided more than $426 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District. The 2026 edition of the Oklahoma Classics, the top night of stakes racing for Oklahoma-breds, is set for Friday, Oct. 16 at Remington Park. Remington Park presents year-round simulcast racing and casino gaming. Guests must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or to enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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