Catalano comes full circle with Dreaming of J C

Wayne Catalano has won more than 2,700 races since he switched from riding to training in 1983. One of those wins came with future Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom in a 2-year-old maiden race, while hundreds more came for owner Frank Calabrese, with whom Catalano has had a volatile off-and-on relationship the last two decades or so.

It will all come full circle for Catalano at Kentucky Downs on Thursday when Dreaming of J C makes his career debut in the third race. Dreaming of J C, a bay 2-year-old colt by Animal Kingdom, is one of three horses that Catalano is training for Calabrese since they reunited earlier this year.

“Funny, isn’t it?” said Catalano, who in 2013 set a still-standing record for most wins by a trainer at a Kentucky Downs meet (10). “I’m good with all of it.”

Animal Kingdom, winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby and 2013 Dubai World Cup for Team Valor International and trainer Graham Motion, is off to a terrific start with his first crop of foals, now 2.

The other two Calabrese horses in the Catalano barn, Frank the Butcher and Dreaming of Jo Jo, both were produced by Dreaming of Anna, with whom Calabrese and Catalano teamed to win the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.