Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Always Dreaming prevails
Panthers’ Viola among owners of winning 3-year-old
Mary Ellen Bonomo came up with the name.
Anthony Bonomo and Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola had the goal and helped with a plan.
Todd Pletcher knew how to get it done.
Always Dreaming did all the rest.
The lightly raced 3-year-old colt took the lead on the backstretch and seemed to have everything under his control as he became the 143rd winner of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday.
He won by 23⁄4 lengths over Lookin At Lee, who could never really make a charge. Battle Of Midway, trained by Jerry Hollendorfer and ridden by Flavien Prat, finished five lengths behind Lookin at Lee.
Pletcher had two other starters in the race, Tapwrit, who finished sixth, and Patch, the one-eyed horse who finished 14th. Davie jockey Tyler Gaffalione, 22, made his Kentucky Derby debut aboard
Patch.
“I knew we had a big shot with this horse and I was hoping it would happen,” Pletcher said.
“The trip unfolded not exactly the way we had planned. We knew for sure we didn’t want to be behind a wall of horses and that turned out OK.”
Always Dreaming, ridden by John Velazquez, broke on top but surrendered the lead to State of Honor going into the first turn.
State Of Honor kept the lead until midway down the backstretch when Always Dreaming, who had been exclusively on the rail, moved outside him, took the lead and returned to the rail.
Battle Of Midway and Irish War Cry went when Always Dreaming moved but never headed him. Entering the homestretch, Always Dreaming found his stride and it was clear he wasn’t going to be caught on the muddy surface as the crowd of 158,070 cheered.
Always Dreaming hadn’t run a stakes race until he won the Florida Derby on April 1 at Gulfstream Park. In fact, he had only won in Florida at Tampa Bay Downs and in another race at Gulfstream.
“Mr. Bonomo, Mr. Viola and all of us had talked about a game plan a long time ago, back before we decided to run him in a maiden race in Tampa,” Pletcher said. “We were going there with a plan of, hopefully, ending up here,”
The colt was bought as a yearling by Bonomo for $350,000 at the Keeneland September sale and Viola later joined the partnership. But the story of the guys who bought him started long before that.
Bonomo and Viola were kids from Brooklyn who liked to sneak into Aqueduct with $6 in their pockets, begging an adult to place a bet for them.
“They would ask me how old I was,” Bonomo said of when he was 15. “I told them I was 27.”