One Fine Dream stretches out for Cyclones

Trainer Kelly Von Hemel surely has been looking forward to this part of the Prairie Meadows meet for his best older Iowa-breds.

On Friday night, Mywomanfromtokyo was to get her first chance in a two-turn race at this meet in the Hawkeyes Stakes, and on Saturday, Von Hemel has a chance to stretch One Fine Dream from sprints to a route in the $65,000 Cyclones Stakes for older Iowa-breds.

One Fine Dream has the outside post in a nine-horse field that will race one mile and 70 yards but still looks like the one to beat in a race he won last year as a 3-year-old. The Cyclones goes as race 8 at 4:12 p.m. Central.

One Fine Dream, by Woke Up Dreamin, has started in five races this year; four were sprints. He raced three times at Oaklawn and got to stretch out once there, finishing a decent fourth in an open, second-level allowance race, but at Prairie Meadows, his two Iowa-bred races, an allowance and the John Wayne Stakes on May 20, were six furlongs.

One Fine Dream finished second by a nose in the John Wayne, where he had post 1, a tough draw for a closing sprinter.

And in Iowa-bred two-turn races, One Fine Dream was unbeatable last year. As a fairly young 3-year-old, he beat his elders in the Cyclones by a neck, then took two dominant victories in age-restricted Iowa-bred stakes. Going two turns, One Fine Dream has the tactical speed to get position from his outside draw, provided jockey Kevin Eikleberry can find a spot for him into the first turn.

The 5-year-old Net Gain finished second to One Fine Dream in the 2016 Cyclones, has a fine Prairie Meadows record, and finished strongly for second June 1 in an allowance prep for the Cyclones. The winner of that race, Scrutinizer, also returns Saturday but got an easy lead last out that he is unlikely to be afforded in a deeper spot with more speed.