Dream Rush up to the Test

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Dream Rush left no doubt as to who is the best 3-year-old filly sprinter in the country with a gate-to-wire, two-length score in Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 Test Stakes at Saratoga.

Taking command soon after the start under Eibar Coa, Dream Rush rattled off fractions of 22.26 seconds, 44.59, 1:08.94 and covered the seven furlongs in 1:22.42 over a fast track while being kept to the task under Coa. She returned $4.50 as the favorite.

Boca Grande, under Julien Leparoux, rallied for second, a neck in front of Baroness Thatcher. She was followed in the order of finish by Sheets, High Again, Akronism, Debbie Got Even, Silver Knockers, Astor Park, Cotton Blossom, Down, and Time's Mistress.

It was the sixth victory in eight career starts for Dream Rush, a daughter of Wild Rush who adds the Test to her victory in the Grade 1 Prioress last month at Belmont Park.

"This is a race all in itself," said winning trainer Rick Violette. "The Prioress is nice - it's a Grade 1 - but the Test is just a super race. It's got an incredible history; great racehorses come out of it, great broodmares come out of it. You talk about 3-year-old filly races - Kentucky Oaks, the Alabama, and the Test, that's it."

The Test figured to be a test for Dream Rush, whose best races have come when she's on the lead. With a field of 12 - Appealing Zophie scratched due a temperature - Dream Rush figured to face early pace pressure.

But when the gates opened, Dream Rush cleared the field by the time they left the chute and she raced uncontested all around the track.

"I wanted just to break and sit, but I broke in front so nobody went," said Coa, who won last year's Test from off the pace with Swap Fliparoo.

Said Violette: "The first quarter might have been the whole key. She broke sharp and just dragged him there and wasn't pressured."

Violette, who trains Dream Rush for a partnership that includes West Point Stable, Lewis Lakin, and John Sikura, said the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Monmouth Park on Oct. 26 is the ultimate goal for Dream Rush. What race she uses as a prep remains to be seen.