Dream Bigger tries turf, two turns in Cab Calloway
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dream Bigger is a three-time stakes winner but barring a switch in venue to the main track, he is the biggest question mark when it comes to handicapping Thursday’s $100,000 Cab Calloway division of the New York Stallion Stakes, which is carded at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
The Cab Calloway drew a field of just six 3-year-old New York-sired runners and also includes recent stakes winner Fresco, the Mike Maker-trained duo of Turbo Drive and Jolting Joe, Stuy Town Baby, and Zipalong.
Dream Bigger has never raced on turf, nor has he run beyond seven furlongs. What he has done is win three of eight career starts, all stakes, including the seven-furlong Damon Runyon at Aqueduct in March. But even his trainer, Rudy Rodriguez, is not sure what to expect Thursday.
“I worked him a couple of times on the grass, and he looked like he was okay, but you don’t really know until they try it,” Rodriguez said. “I really wanted to breeze him one more time on the grass, so I put in a request [with the racing office] last Wednesday to work Sunday at 9:45 with the other stakes horses. At first they told me okay, then they said I had to work him at 10:30 because he’s a nonwinners of one, which I didn’t understand. He won his maiden in a stakes and has been running in stakes ever since. I didn’t want to wait until 10:30, my horses are all eating by then, so I breezed him on the dirt instead.”
Rodriguez said he is not concerned about stretching Dream Bigger around two turns for the first time in the Cab Calloway.
“The distance I’m not worried about, I think he’ll be okay,” Rodriguez said. “I’m just hoping the rain comes this way, and we can put the race on the dirt.”
Fresco won the filly division of this race, the 1 1/16-mile Statue of Liberty, as the odds-on favorite here July 23 and wheels back on short rest while facing males for the first time. Fresco is a full sister to seven-time stakes winner Therapist.
“It’s very aggressive, it’s probably nuts, but there are no more New York-sired stakes,” trainer Christophe Clement explained. “I just thought if we were going to be aggressive, this is the time. Even if she finished third, it’s a big deal. She’s a filly and the more black type you can add to her name, the better.”
Fresco is one of two fillies in the field along with Stuy Town Baby, an easy winner against $40,000 maiden rivals last month at Belmont Park.
Turbo Drive is the only member of the field aside from Dream Bigger with multiple wins on his résumé and gives red-hot trainer Mike Maker a solid one-two punch along with Jolting Joe. Jolting Joe is still a maiden, having finished second in all four career starts, although he’s stakes-placed against open company and brings in the highest last-race Beyer Speed Figure of the group, an 80 earned for his fourth consecutive runner-up finish, a near miss, against older horses just 12 days earlier at Ellis Park.
– additional reporting by David Grening