Dream Central in time again to win Suzie O’Cain

By Tom Law

Eddie Fazzone likes to come to trainer Gary Sciacca with the occasional suggestion, nudge if you will, about where to run his horses.

“He’ll come to me with this and that and I’ll tell Paul, ‘put it on the list,’ ” Sciacca said , referring to his longtime assistant Paul Barone. “We laugh about it all the time. He gets mad, well, not really mad. It’s fun, we have a great time. He’s a great guy.”

Fazzone asked Sciacca to put the inaugural Suzie O’Cain Stakes on the list for Dream Central, before she even ran in and won the Cupecoy’s Joy division of the New York Stallion Series Stakes last month at Belmont Park. He’d asked for the Cupecoy’s Joy, too, even though Dream Central was still a maiden with six defeats to her ledger.

The Cupecoy’s Joy worked out for longtime friends Fazzone and Sciacca – Dream Central won by a neck at almost 40-1 – and the $125,000 Suzie O’Cain worked Wednesday. Dream Central got up in time again to win the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies, giving Fazzone’s Eddie F’s Racing operation its first Saratoga victory and fifth stakes triumph.

“What a great race to win,” said Fazzone, who runs the popular Eddie F’s New England Seafood Restaurant on Clinton Street in Saratoga Springs. “Suzie was a great friend. She came in the restaurant all the time. … I can’t be any more happy than I am right now.”

Dream Central, bred by and foaled at John Jayko’s Fedwell Farm in Saratoga Springs, improved to 2-for-7 and boosted her earnings to $164,667 with the head victory over even-money favorite She’s a Mia. The 3-year-old daughter of 2021 leading New York sire Central Banker had only finished third once in her six starts before entering stakes company, but that didn’t scare Sciacca or Fazzone from stepping up.

“She’s 2-for-2 in stakes races but couldn’t break her maiden,” Sciacca said. “She had a little trouble a few times and probably should have broken her maiden.

“It’s so good. Up here, Saratoga is so tough. I know it meant so much to Eddie to win up here. A regular race, never mind a stakes race. He would have been happy with a claiming race. But we still have some more bullets to fire.”

Dream Central came ready to fire in the Suzie O’Cain, named for the popular and pioneering horsewoman who served on the New York Thoroughbred Breeders’ Inc. board and passed away in January.

Jockey Jose Lezcano, who rode Dream Central in the Cupecoy’s Joy, came to the paddock confident and told Sciacca he’d let the filly relax and try to make one run for the victory.

Dream Central raced sixth early as Solib, one of two runners for trainer Joe Sharp along with Classic Lynne, set the early pace on a loose lead under Luis Saez. Classic Lynne led through splits of :23.93, :48.23 and 1:12.17 before the field bunched up around the far turn and into the stretch.

Dufresne came away with the lead in midstretch when the pacesetter called it a day and braced for the challenge of She’s a Mia in midstretch. She’s a Mia and Joel Rosario took dead aim, snatched the lead but couldn’t hold it and lost in the final strides. The first two were 3 lengths clear of Dufresne, with Classic Lynne fourth, Lisa’s Vision fifth and Solib sixth. Dream Central won in 1:42.34.

“I knew the race today was a little tougher than the last race,” Fazzone said. “She’s been doing great. Gary had her ready and I knew she was ready.

“We always knew she had a lot of talent. We tried her on the dirt but knew she was totally turf. Hopefully she comes out of this good and we go for the (Statue of Liberty division of the NYSS Aug. 18). Those were the two races we had picked out, today and the sire stakes.”

Dream Central is the fourth foal out of the stakes-placed winning Deputy Wild Cat mare Dreamed to Dream, who was purchased by Jayko in foal to Point of Entry for $7,500 at the 2018 OBS winter mixed sale. She produced the New York-bred gelding Dreampoint from that mating and he’s placed six times from 16 starts and earned $85,393 for Eddie F’s Racing and Sciacca.

Dreamed to Dream’s first foal, the Treasure Beach mare Beach Dreaming, was a five-time winner of $108,280. She’s also the dam of stakes winner Dreamalildreamofu, who is graded-stakes placed and the earner of $289,403. Dreamalildreamofu sold for $235,000 at last year’s Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

Dreamed to Dream is also the dam of an unraced 2-year-old New York-bred filly by Klimt named Secessionist and a colt by Speightster born in New York Feb. 20.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2022/07/20/dream-central-in-time-again-to-win-suzie-ocain/

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Royalty: New York-bred steeplechaser wins Grade 1 at Saratoga

By Sean Clancy

“I don’t care about that right now…but, yes.”

That’s how Kate Dalton responded when she was reminded that she and her husband, Bernie, collected the breeders’ bonus for winning the Grade 1 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase Thursday at Saratoga Race Course.

Their homebred, Down Royal, had upset the first steeplechase stakes of the meet, rallying latest of all to nail Chief Justice in the final strides of the 2 1/16-mile stakes. Bred by the Daltons, owned in partnership with Joe Fowler’s Shadowfax Stable, trained by Kate, ridden by Bernie, shipped by Bernie and run by Kate, the 8-year-old daughter of Alphabet Soup collected $90,000 for the win, provided the Daltons with a career highlight and, oh yeah, added another $27,000 in breeders’ bonus.

Now, that’s a score.

Taking on two British-breds, two Irish-breds, a French-bred and a Kentucky-bred – all boys – the hometown girl settled off the pace, moved up after a mile, waited around the fourth turn and aimed at Chief Justice like she knew the enormity at hand. Sent off fourth choice, Down Royal slipped through on the inside of longshot Chief Justice to win by a neck.

Born at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds all the way back in 2014, Down Royal made three starts on the flat (beaten a combined 45 1/2 lengths) before switching to steeplechasing. She broke her maiden as a 3-year-old and earned seven checks during a tough 11-race losing streak that lasted from November 2017 to April 2021. For her 7-year-old debut, the Daltons decided to take her off Lasix, to see what happened, basically.

What’s happened has been a resurgence.

Down Royal won a handicap to begin 2021, finished second in a filly and mare stakes at the Iroquois and tacked on stakes at Colonial Downs and Far Hills to finish last season. She provided Bernie Dalton with his 100th career win (the 41st American jump jockey to accomplish it) before her Grade 1 scourge Thursday.

“You don’t even dream of days like this. I had seen her as a chestnut filly with a white blaze about three or four months at McMahon’s and she’s been the apple of my eye ever since. Daddies and their girls, I guess,” Bernie Dalton said. “I loved her mother. I couldn’t win a stake with her mother. This mare was very much like that until a year ago. I don’t know if it’s the Lasix or what but she started to improve. It’s a credit to her, that mare comes in every spring and wants to train, never, ever says so, always happy to be back in the barn, always happy to go to the races. For the last two weeks, she’s been like, ‘I’m bored. Let’s go somewhere. Let’s do something.’ They speak to you, if you listen. It’s the New York-bred in them. It’s the New York style, baby. Bring it.”

She brought it.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2022/07/20/royalty-new-york-bred-steeplechaser-wins-grade-1-at-saratoga/

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