Making the Grade, which will run through the 2017 Belmont Stakes, focuses on the winners or top performers of the big races, usually from the previous weekend, who could make an impact in Triple Crown races. We’ll be taking a close look at impressive winners and evaluating their chances to win classic races based upon ability, running style, connections (owner, trainer, jockey) and pedigree.
This week we take a closer look at Always Dreaming, winner of the Grade 1, $2 million Kentucky Derby on May 6 at Churchill Downs.
Ability: After finishing third and second, respectively, in sprint races in New York as a 2-year-old, Always Dreaming was given an extended break. He posted solid Equibase Speed Figures of 85 and 96 for his two starts in 2016 for trainer Dominick Schettino, but entered his 3-year-old campaign still in search of his first victory.
That changed on Jan. 25 at Tampa Bay Downs when he powered to an 11½-length romp going one mile and 40 yards in his first race under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez and his first start for seven-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher. Always Dreaming followed with a front-running, four-length win in a Gulfstream Park allowance optional claiming race at 1 1/8 miles before a victory in the Florida Derby that was as impressive visually as it was on paper. He earned his first triple-digit Equibase Speed Figure after pressing a strong pace and finishing fast (12.53 seconds for the final eighth of a mile). That’s always a terrific sign in a racehorse, especially a Kentucky Derby hopeful nearing his first attempt at 1¼ miles.
This $350,000 purchase out of the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale had won three straight by a combined margin of 20 ½ lengths leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Sent off as the 4.70-1 favorite, he lived up to expectations.
Always Dreaming broke alertly out of the starting gate and took a brief early lead under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez before setting into a relaxed rhythm just behind pacesetter State of Honor. Using his tremendous cruising speed as the potent weapon it is, he took over near the quarter pole and opened up a three-length lead in early stretch. At that point, the Kentucky Derby was his and the margin of victory was the only thing left to be determined. He charged home a 2 ¾-length winner in 2:03.59 on the sealed, wet-fast main track.
Always Dreaming earned a 104 Equibase Speed Figure for the win, which was his first try on a wet track. It’s a new career-best speed figure, but not a huge jump that should lead to a regression in the Preakness Stakes in two weeks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsBdwsT560E
Running style: Always Dreaming’s natural speed is an extremely valuable asset in two-turn races and allowed him to obtain optimal positioning in the 1 ¼-mile Kentucky Derby. He streaked out of the gate and settled in just off the pace, at which time part-owner Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds said: “He’s sittin’ pretty, he’s sittin’ pretty; oh, they’re going to have a tough time with him!”
This is a racehorse capable of overcoming adversity – he did not get discouraged after the traffic trouble on the first turn of the Florida Derby – with tactical speed and the ability to carry it a long way. He should be very close to the pace in the Preakness Stakes as well, and he’ll dare the opposition to beat him in the stretch.
Connections: Always Dreaming is owned by an elaborate partnership that includes MeB Racing Stables, Brooklyn Boyz Stables, Teresa Viola Racing Stables, St. Elias Stable, Siena Farm and West Point Thoroughbreds. MeB Stables and Brooklyn Boyz Stable are the racing names for Mary Ellen and Anthony Bonomo of New York, respectively. St. Elias Stable and Teresa Viola Racing Stables are the racing operations of Vincent Viola and his wife, Teresa. Vincent Viola, also a Brooklyn, N.Y. native, is the owner of the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers.
Anthony R. Manganaro, Nacho Patino and David Pope founded Siena Farm on 225 acres in Paris, Ky., and West Point Thoroughbreds is the racing partnership founded by West Point graduate Terry Finley that has faced nine Grade 1 winners.
Always Dreaming’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, is the all-time leader among trainers in career Thoroughbred racing earnings with $338,819,298 through May 8. An assistant to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas before going out on his own in 1996, Pletcher is a seven-time Eclipse Award winner as outstanding trainer.
Pletcher also won the Kentucky Derby in 2010 with Super Saver, the Belmont Stakes with Rags to Riches in 2007 and the 2013 Belmont Stakes with Palace Malice.
Like Pletcher, Always Dreaming’s jockey, John Velazquez, is the all-time leading rider by purse earnings with $364,064,547 through May 8. A two-time Eclipse Award winner as outstanding jockey, Velazquez won his first Kentucky Derby in 2011 on Animal Kingdom.
Velazquez and Pletcher have teamed to win more than 1,600 races together, including four Breeders’ Cup races, the Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes and Haskell Invitational Stakes, but they had not won the Kentucky Derby together until 2017.
Velazquez guided Rags to Riches to victory in the Belmont Stakes in 2007 for Pletcher and won the 2012 Belmont aboard Union Rags. He was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0Wydt1VPr0&t=3s
Pedigree: Always Dreaming is from the first crop of 2012 Arkansas Derby winner Bodemeister, a blazing-fast runner capable of carrying his speed a long way. Bodemeister finished second to I’ll Have Another in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2012, grudgingly relinquishing the lead in the former after a setting a blistering pace through a half-mile in :45.39.
It’s impossible to judge a sire by only one crop, but with three stakes winners, including the 2017 Kentucky Derby winner, the future looks incredibly bright for Bodemeister.
Always Dreaming is out of four-time stakes winner Above Perfection, by In Excess. Above Perfection won the Grade 3 Las Floras Stakes at three-quarters of a mile and also was a stakes winner at seven-eighths of a mile. She also is the dam (mother) of Grade 1 winner Hot Dixie Chick, Always Dreaming’s half-sister (same dam, different sire).
Always Dreaming’s grandam (maternal grandmother) was unraced but produced a pair of stakes winners: the aforementioned Above Perfection and multiple stakes winner Made to Perfection.
Always Dreaming proved capable of excelling at 1¼ miles, so 1 3/16 miles on a main track at Pimlico Race Course that typically is kind to speed should be no problem at all. He’s in the capable hands of Pletcher and Velazquez, both seeking their first Preakness win, and unlike a few others coming out of the Derby, Always Dreaming appears to have come out of the race without a scrape.
The primary opposition probably will be champion Classic Empire, who endured a terrible trip in the Derby and came out of the race with an abrasion to his right eye that temporarily had his Preakness availability up in the air. But really, the second jewel of the Triple Crown probably depends mostly on whether Always Dreaming can run another classic-winning race on two weeks' rest. If he returns at his best, chances are the rest of the field will be running for second. If Always Dreaming takes a step back, the Preakness becomes a much more interesting race.
