One Fine Dream returns to route in Cyclones Stakes

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 at 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 he got an easy lead last out that he is unlikely to be afforded in a deeper spot with more speed.