Dream Dancing has plenty of pluses – and a few minuses – in Marshua's River

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dream Dancing has a lot going for her, which is why she surely will be favored Saturday when the Grade 3, $150,000 Marshua’s River is run for the 16th time at Gulfstream Park.

She’s a Grade 1 winner. She’s 2 for 2 at Gulfstream. And she’s got Irad Ortiz Jr. riding.

And yet, there are plausible reasons Dream Dancing doesn’t have to win the Marshua’s River, which will be run at 1 1/16 miles on turf as the ninth of 12 Saturday races.

Having just turned 4, Dream Dancing is making her first start against older horses. She hasn’t raced in three months. The outside post in a field of eight isn’t ideal. And the distance might be a tad short, given how her late-running style fairly screams for more ground.

“This is a big step,” said Mark Casse, who trains Dream Dancing for owner-breeder John Oxley. “She’s now got to run against the older girls and the race is probably a little shorter than she’d like, but we do know that she likes it at Gulfstream. She’s run twice and won twice, so that’s a nice thing.”

Last year, Dream Dancing had a far more productive season than any of her seven opponents in the Marshua’s River. She won back-to-back races here last winter, ending with a neck score in the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride, and she hit a peak in August when she somehow got up in the last jump to win the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks.

Regrouped at Casse’s Ocala, Fla., base following a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland in October, Dream Dancing had been intended for the American Oaks two weeks ago at Santa Anita, but a travel snafu precluded her from being entered. Casse said the gray daughter of Tapit has trained exceptionally well in recent weeks and he expects a big effort. Ortiz will substitute for regular rider Julien Leparoux, who is at Fair Grounds for the day.

If Dream Dancing is to come up short, then Gianna’s Dream (post 5, Tyler Gaffalione) is the most likely upsetter. Trained by Mike Maker for Jordan Wycoff, the 5-year-old mare has never been in better form, having earned a career-high 97 Beyer Speed Figure when narrowly defeated here four weeks ago by an odds-on favorite, On Leave, in the Grade 3 My Charmer.

“She’s a little iron filly,” Maker said. “She runs her eyeballs out every race. I think a graded win would help her broodmare value tremendously. She’s such an honest horse, it would be something nice to put on her résumé.”

Others in the lineup are Inside Out, Kylla Instinct, Vendita, Abbreviate, King’s Ghost, and Ultra Brat. Of those, Abbreviate (post 4, Joel Rosario) and Ultra Brat (post 7, Nik Juarez) will probably take the most action. Both exit the Autumn Days at Aqueduct.

The Marshua’s River is named for a mare who ended a 33-race career with back-to-back graded stakes wins over the Gulfstream turf in 1994. She was ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Jose Santos, who regularly attends the races here, and was trained by David Carroll, who now works as a top Casse assistant in New Orleans and Kentucky.

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