Princess Dream aims to go 3 for 3 on the year in First Episode

Variety is the unofficial theme of Sunday’s racing at Suffolk Downs, the fourth day of the track’s six-day meet. In addition to a pair of $50,000 stakes for Massachusetts-breds, the First Episode and Louise Kimball, two steeplechase races are part of the 13-race card, along with a mixture of maiden races, claimers, and allowances on the flat.

With the Louise Kimball carded as an exhibition, the First Episode for fillies and mares is the only stakes that will offer wagering. The 11th race, the First Episode drew a field of six, including the winners of its past two runnings, Miss Wilby (2017) and Jeb (2016).

Favored at 8-5 on the morning line is Princess Dream, who is 2 for 2 this year, having won the Miss Patriot at Finger Lakes and the Isadorable during opening weekend at Suffolk. Behind her in one or both of those races were all five of the rivals she faces Sunday.

Those races were sprints, with the first at five furlongs and the second at six furlongs, leaving the one-mile First Episode to present more of a stamina challenge.

Princess Dream, a 5-year-old by leading New York-based sire Freud and out of the Gone West mare Virginia Reel, is bred to route but has raced two turns only once in her 11-race career, finishing third, beaten 10 lengths by Miss Wilby in last year’s First Episode when it was contested at a mile and 70 yards. A far less-experienced filly at that time, Princess Dream was checked into the first turn from an inside racing position and weakened after chasing the pace for three-quarters.

Princess Dream carries high weight of 127 pounds on Sunday, spotting the opposition three to eight pounds. Joel Sone rides her for trainer Jonathan Buckley and owner and breeder Patricia Moseley.

Although last of six most recently in the Isadorable, Miss Wilby could prove the biggest threat to Princess Dream in the First Episode. Out for eight months prior to her last race, she may have been short on fitness. A 12-time winner over her 32-race career, she is 5 for 10 in dirt routes.

Sunday marks the continuation of the second round of a $5,000 jockey challenge at Suffolk Downs. Jockeys earn points based on their mounts’ finishes over the weekend, with the top point getter receiving a $2,500 prize, the runner up $1,500, and the third-place finisher $1,000. Dylan Davis won the challenge the first weekend of the meet.

First post for Sunday’s card, featuring $480,000 in purse money, is 12:55 p.m. Eastern.