Dream Bigger needs to run straighter in Rego Park

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Dream Bigger had just overtaken longshot leader Moonachie in deep stretch and seemed on his way to victory in the $500,000 Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Stakes here on Dec. 14. Then, jockey Manny Franco switched the whip from his left to his right hand. When Franco hit him right-handed, Dream Bigger lugged in a path or two and Franco had to steady him. Ultimately, Dream Bigger lost a head bob to Bank on Shea.

“I thought if Manny kept the whip in his left hand, I think we could have won it,” Rudy Rodriguez, the trainer of Dream Bigger said. “I think it cost us the race.”

Franco and Dream Bigger will get a chance to make amends Sunday – albeit for a much smaller purse – in the $100,000 Rego Park Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds at Aqueduct. The Rego Park, at 6 1/2 furlongs, a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Great White Way, drew a field of only five.

Dream Bigger was sent off the 6-5 favorite in the Great White Way coming off victories in the New York Breeders’ Futurity at Finger Lakes and the Notebook at Aqueduct. In the Notebook, Dream Bigger defeated Scilly Cay, one of his four rivals on Sunday.

Rodriguez said Dream Bigger won the Notebook despite not being 100 percent fit. Rodriguez had planned on skipping that race to train up to the Great White Way.

“I didn’t think we had him really, really ready for that race,” Rodriguez said. “He ran good and he got a little tired.”

On Sunday, Dream Bigger will break from post 4. As the 122-pound highweight, he will concede four pounds to the other four starters.

Scilly Cay, trained by Linda Rice, may have gotten farther off the pace than planned in the Notebook, yet still closed well and was beaten only 1 1/4 lengths by Dream Bigger while finishing 4 3/4 lengths clear of Bank On Shea.

“He’s very live. He breezed very well the other day,” said Rice, who also entered Notorious Flirt, a maiden winner on Dec. 28.

Convict, a son of hot sire Constitution trained by Gary Contessa, was extremely game defeating More Graytful by a neck in a Dec. 5 maiden race.

“He was not letting that horse go by,” Contessa said. “He’s got the right attitude.”

Convict will break from the rail under Dylan Davis.

Harris Bay, who beat Dream Bigger in a Sept. 14 maiden race at Belmont but finished fourth behind him in the Notebook Stakes, completes the field.

The Rego Park goes as race 7 on an eight-race card that begins at 12:30 p.m.

◗ Following Sunday’s card, there will be four consecutive dark days, with racing resuming on Friday for a four-day race-week that concludes with a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday card on Jan. 20.