Dreamaway looks to runaway from boys in Speakeasy Stakes
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ARCADIA, Calif. – If her trainer is right, the only filly in the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes also is the speed of the speed. Considering that trainer Wesley Ward has won at least 90 stakes with turf sprinters, he would know.
Dreamaway shipped Wednesday to Santa Anita, where Saturday she can establish Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint credentials by smoking seven rivals in the Speakeasy. It won’t be easy. The five-furlong turf sprint is loaded with speed, perhaps none quicker than Dreamaway.
“I just think the fillies are quicker than the colts, especially 2-year-olds,” Ward said. “They’re quicker at this time of year. I’d prefer to run fillies in a colt race instead of against fillies early on.”
Dreamaway, 2 for 2 including a turf stakes blowout over fillies at Monmouth Park, may go favored in the Speakeasy. Her male rivals include highly rated maiden dirt winner Smash It, stakes-placed I’m a Bad Boy and Timty, and impressive last-out maiden winner Kale’s Angel.
They’ll have to catch Dreamaway, currently fifth choice for the BC Juvenile Turf Sprint on the Daily Racing Form early odds line by David Aragona. Dreamaway is 8-1 for the Juvenile Turf Sprint, a race Ward has won three times in its six-year history.
Ward is based at Keeneland, where Sunday he starts 2-year-old colts Pharoah’s Dynasty and Floodlites in the $250,000 Indian Summer Stakes. Dreamaway entered the 5 1/2-furlong Indian Summer, but she will run five-eighths Saturday at Santa Anita.
“I’d love to run her at my home track, but it’s five and one-half furlongs here, and it’s a deeper course,” Ward said this week from Keeneland. “The difference between five and five-and-a-half, you’d think it’s nothing. It’s a football field.”
Dreamaway won the Colleen Stakes on July 28 at Monmouth by five lengths, after which Ward circled the Speakeasy. He worked Dreamaway five furlongs on turf Sept. 21 at Keeneland.
“She worked really good, but I could tell . . . she’d be a demon at Santa Anita.”
Juan Hernandez rides Dreamaway in the Speakeasy. She is sandwiched between two fast geldings – I’m a Bad Boy inside, Smash It outside.
Smash It might be the filly’s main pace rival. Todd Fincher trains Smash It, a Star Guitar gelding whose 91 Beyer Speed Figure maiden win on dirt at Del Mar is the highest figure by a 2-year-old this season in California.
“He just keeps getting better, which is crazy as much as I’ve run him [four starts],” Fincher said. “He gets better every time, he’s almost an anomaly. If he runs a faster Beyer every time, we’re going to have a Flightline on our hands one of these days.”
For now, Fincher will settle for a Speakeasy victory with Smash It, whose rider is Umberto Rispoli. Smash It is racing on turf for the first time.
If the pace unravels, last-out Del Mar turf sprint maiden winner Kale’s Angel could be the opportunistic upsetter. Peter Miller trains the colt, whose rider is Antonio Fresu. The Speakeasy is race 4 on Saturday.
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