Dickinson, even in low profile, still succeeding
While it did not quite match the two feats for which he is most famous, Michael Dickinson had a perfect day Tuesday at Colonial Downs.
Second-time starter Search for Truth, a 3-year-old gelding by Tourist out of Kinley, won a 1 1/8-mile turf maiden race by 13 1/2 lengths. Later on the card, 3-year-old filly Belle Belisa, making her career debut, rallied with a purpose to win a 1 1/8-mile turf maiden race of her own, getting up by one length.
Dickinson, reached Thursday by phone, said both horses could return to Colonial for Aug. 31 stakes races, Belle Belisa for the Virginia Oaks, Search for Truth the Virginia Derby.
These were just the third and fourth starters all year for Dickinson, who has won with three of those runners, a far cry from the busiest days of his training career, when he saddled more than 200 runners a season. Dickinson, an English ex-pat, was a highly successful jumps trainer overseas, most famously sending out the first five finishers in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup. In America, Dickinson’s various high-level successes hit a peak with Breeders’ Cup Mile wins in 1996 and 1998 with Da Hoss, the latter coming in the horse’s second start following a layoff of two years. The prep race for Da Hoss’s second Mile victory came at Colonial.
:: Join DRF Bets and play the races with a $250 First Deposit Bonus. Click to learn more.
Dickinson not only has cut back on the number of horses he trains, he has left the administration of his very successful synthetic surface company, Tapeta Footings, to his wife and business partner, Joan Wakefield. Wakefield is in Florida supervising a Tapeta installation at Gulfstream Park while Dickinson is in Maryland training a string of six off his Tapeta Farm in Maryland.
“I’m a hobby trainer doing it for fun with some really good owners. I’m enjoying myself. I have six owners with trust in me. They know I’m trying hard. I’m very close to the horses. I get up at 4 o’clock in the morning, turn them out in the field. They’re my friends,” Dickinson said.
Belle Belisa has taken extra work. Her win this past Tuesday was a year in the making, Belle Belisa erecting numerous impediments to the expression of her talent.
“Very impatient is the word for her.” Belle Belisa at Colonial “was terrible in the paddock, terrible in the gate – she flung the jockey off. She did everything wrong. She’s going to take a few races to settle down. She’s not a well-behaved young lady,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson said Search for Truth, to his surprise, raced greenly in his career debut, finishing second at Delaware Park. At Colonial, he went straight to the lead, winning in a romp.
“I haven’t raced him enough to know his best way of running. I think he’s going to be very versatile,” Dickinson said.
Six horses, three winners – this hobby trainer still seems to know what he’s doing.