Harness: Dilloian stable on a roll with horses from Iowa to Australia

For trainer Doug Dilloian Jr., having a horse sent to him from Iowan owners on a trial basis was something new. The New Jersey-based conditioner now with 11 horses in training had a stable filled with Down Under veterans before the arrival of the pacing filly Bitty Bitty.

"She was racing well at Running Aces [in Minnesota] and the owners sent her to me to see how she would do here during the winter," said Dilloian of the daughter of Captaintreacherous. "We started from scratch and didn't know what she was."

Bitty Bitty debuted for her new trainer in November and captured six of seven starts moving slowly up the pari-mutuel win ladder in the process.

"She was winning her races but never paced hard through the wire," said Dilloian.

When the calendar turned to January and Bitty Bitty became a 5-year-old, it was almost as if she shifted gears and recognized what it meant to finish a mile.

"Those first two starts of the year were impressive," said Dilloian. "She finished with the earplugs in both times."

A career-best 1:53 clocking would be taken in her January 12 debut over the Yonkers half-mile track in a non-winners-of-6 contest. A week later she would again overpower rivals in the non-winners-of-8 classification in another open-lengths score. The result didn't change on Wednesday (1/26) as she won by just over a length in 1:54 4/5.

"She's definitely got real talent. I think she'll do well in this class but I'm not sure how she'll be once we have to race open company," said Dilloian, who through some 20 years in the sport clearly understands the difference in the class ladder.

For Dilloian, the class ladder for him started at the bottom.

"Initially my grandfather bought be a few $4,000 claimers,' Dilloian said, reflecting on his beginnings. "It was tough, but it was probably the best lesson you could get. You had to spend time with the horses and get the most out of them."

During some lean times Dilloian would help supplement his income by working as a second trainer for Carl Cito Jr. and Mark Harder, who he credits for helping him develop as a trainer.

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With just a few owners Dilloian has been fortunate to make the kind of connections necessary to do well in this business. Notably for his stable has been its ability to procure top horses competing in Australia to import to race locally, mostly at Yonkers.

"All the horses we've bought were racing at Gloucester in Australia," said Dilloian. "The track has a similar configuration to Yonkers."

Leading the pack in the march to America was Soho Lennon A, who arrived on these shores in 2016 and has been an absolute war-horse over the Yonkers strip.

"He's made about $600,000 for us," said Dilloian of the now 12-year-old son of Mach Three that raced on Monday (1/24) at the $100,000 claiming level. "I really don't like to race in claimers, but he's an older horse that really can't race competitively in Open company anymore."

The success of Soho Lennon A was followed by the arrival of a select group of horses that Dilloian has managed to make the most of over time. Also on that Monday card, Speed Man N was a solid second in the Yonkers $39,000 Open event with Jason Bartlett aboard.

"I think he's an Open horse during the winter," Dilloian said of Speed Man N, a horse that earned in excess of $150k over the last two years for Dilloian and partner Howard Perlmutter's Pit Bull Stable.

Dilloian credits owner David Linker's relationship with Mark Lewis as the reason the stable has done so well locating horses that are ideal fits to race in North America. The pair get first call on some of the more talented horses coming out of Western Australia. The trainer likes to give his horses time once they get here to acclimate before getting them on the racetrack.

When the 7-year-old Shanway N showed up last fall he gave every indication that he could be a top-class pacer. The son of Bettor's Delight burst on the scene quickly for Dilloian, winning two of his first three starts with a monster 1:51 4/5 victory at Yonkers on November 2, suggesting he really could be an Open pacer.

"We actually didn't think of him that way when we bought him," said Dilloian. "We paid just $53,000 for him landed and were just looking for a mid-range conditioned horse."

Shanway N would move to Open company four weeks later with a fifth-place finish. "That was my fault," Dilloian said. "He had been sick, and I probably should have backed off with him. I went against my own rules."

Shanway N has been a little better since returning to Yonkers in January while racing below the Open class.

Price is a major consideration for Dilloian and his partners when making Down Under purchases.

"Pretty much everything we buy is between $40,000 and $85,000 landed," Dilloian said, while again calling an exception to the rule in the groups most recent arrival.

"We paid $88,000 for Alta Blues A," said Dilloian of the recent import that has an interesting back story. "We get a lot of our horses with recommendations from Gary Hall Jr. This is a horse that he raced that was the best 4-year-old on the circuit. Actually, Alta Blues A's sire Alta Christiano is a horse his dad raced and was a champion that he decided to breed."

Alta Christiano is a son of noted sire Christian Cullen.

Alta Blues A last raced in Australia in November and is currently in residence at Dilloian's Gaitway Farm stable.

"He's in training now and I think he'll be ready to race at the end of February," Dilloian forecasted.

The sire's side of Alta Blues A's pedigree is unique to some, but the dam's side is extremely recognizable and may have more to do with his overall talent level. Child From The Sea is the dam of Alta Blues A. She's a daughter of Astreos and happens to be a half-sister to the greatest racehorse-sire combination in the sport's history, Somebeachsomewhere.

For Doug Dilloian Jr. 2022 has gotten off to a fast start with plenty of pacing power racing primarily at Yonkers.

"The money is good there and our horses get around the track," said Dilloian, whose lifelong strategy is to go with what you know best. "If something works I don't just double down on it, I triple down."

The proof is in a small yet power-packed stable that continues to shine.