Dream Maker joins Derby fray

NEW ORLEANS – On balance, Saturday turned out all right for the trainer Mark Casse.

Early in the morning, Casse watched Lecomte Stakes winner War of Will turn in a sharp halfmile work for his engagement here Feb. 16 in the Risen Star Stakes. Tot that up in the “good thing” column.

A few hours later, the Fair Grounds racing office drew the Feb. 16 card and War of Will landed post 14, a dreadful draw, for the Risen Star. Not so good

But fast forward to mid-afternoon, and there went the Cassetrained 3-year-old Dream Maker running circles around five foes in a first-level two-turn dirt allowance race. He won by 8 1/2 lengths and Dream Maker’s final time of 1:44.10 for 1 1/16-miles yielded an 89 Beyer Speed Figure that, if anything, seems conservative. The Fair Grounds main track has produced slow-ish times throughout this season and was by no means fast Saturday.

Figures aside, Dream Maker got a right-handed, then lefthanded pop from Florent Geroux in upper stretch before widening his advantage to the finish, proceeding to gallop out as if another couple of furlongs of actual racing would only serve to stoke his fire.

All this in Dream Maker’s first start since a 12th-place finish Oct. 6 in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.

“He looked wonderful this morning,” Casse said Sunday afternoon. “I had a good conversation with [owner John] Oxley this morning, and right now the plan is to go to the Tampa Bay Derby. That’s just because of the timing. It’s four weeks and that’d give us time to go on to the Blue Grass.”

The Tampa Bay Derby is March 9, the Blue Grass scheduled for April 6.

Dream Maker won his debut last June at Churchill Downs and was regarded as potentially the best 2-year-old in the loaded Casse stable. But he bruised a foot at Saratoga, which cost him an intended start in the Sanford Stakes, finished a one-paced fifth in the Grade 1 Hopeful, and was eliminated in the Breeders’ Futurity by serious trouble at the start that led to a horseshoe being pulled off. Casse took Dream Maker back to Florida, regrouped, and watched the colt blossom and mature through late fall and early winter.

“He went from a teenager who’s six-foot and 140 pounds to six-foot and 200 pounds.”

Dream Maker is by Tapit, whose offspring can be difficult to manage psychologically, but Dream Maker “has a wonderful temperament,” Casse said.

An Oxley homebred, Dream Maker is out of the mare To Dream About, who is by Monarchos, Oxley’s Kentucky Derby winner. Dream Maker’s second dam is Beautiful Pleasure, a multiple Grade 1-winning monster Oxley campaigned.

Casse said Dream Maker would be stabled at Fair Grounds for a couple of more weeks before moving to the Casse Training Center in Ocala, Fla., and shipping from there to race at Tampa Bay.

Still, Dream Maker is one stakes win behind stablemate War of Will, whose Lecomte win planted him in firmly on the Derby trail. War of Will went a half-mile Saturday in 47.20 under assistant trainer David Carroll’s son, the Fair Groundsbased jockey Declan Carroll, and “could’ve gone faster if we hadn’t slowed him at the eighth pole,” Casse said.

With Kingly already a known Risen Star scratch, War of Will at worst breaks from post 13, and Casse hopes the wide draw in the end is overcome by the colt’s ability.

“My thought when it happened was, if he’s as good as we think he is, it won’t matter,” said Casse.

Baffert stakes duo not shipping

Bob Baffert said in a text message Sunday that the two horses he entered in stakes races Saturday at Fair Grounds weren’t shipping here from California.

Both horses drew poor outside posts in their respective races, the filly Chasing Yesterday post 10 for the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra and the colt Kingly post 13 for the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes.

Kingly would have been a mid-priced consideration for the Risen Star, but Chasing Yesterday probably would have been favored in the Rachel Alexandra. A half-sister to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, Chasing Yesterday has won three races in a row, most recently capturing the Grade 1 Starlet on Dec. 8 at Los Alamitos Racecourse.

Kingly’s defection allows the Risen Star’s lone also-eligible, Gun It, to draw into the field if his connections desire. Likely favorite War of Will moves in at least one spot to post 13 and could slide even closer to the rail since Manny Wah, trainer Wayne Catalano said Sunday, isn’t a certain runner. Catalano also is contemplating taking Liora out of the Rachel Alexandra.

Winter Sunset wows Catalano

A month ago, trainer Wayne Catalano, giving a visitor a tour of his Fair Grounds string, kept coming back to the near-white filly in the stall nearest his barn office. Winter Sunset, Catalano said, might be the real deal.

And yes, she might be. After galloping to an easy frontrunning maiden win in her career debut here Nov. 29, Winter Sunset stepped it up a couple of notches winning the $60,000 Shantel Lanerie Memorial Overnight Stakes on Saturday. She showed a high-level turn of foot flicking up into an opening inside odds-on favorite Elsa turning for home, bumped and brushed with Elsa in upper stretch, then powered home to a 1 1/2-length win in this one-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies. Elsa in her last start had comfortably won the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante at Del Mar.

“She got a lot out of that,” Catalano said Sunday. “She’s might be a pretty nice filly.”

Winter Sunset is by Tapit and out of Winter Memories, a multiple Grade 1-winning turf mare and the daughter of Memories of Silver, another multiple Grade 1-winning turf mare. Catalano thinks Winter Sunset can carry on the family tradition of top-level grass wins and said he’ll work back from the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational in July to chart a course. There are no suitable races for Winter Sunset here at Fair Grounds, but the filly might be aimed at the Florida Oaks on March 9 at Tampa Bay Downs.

Calhoun wins 3,000th

Bret Calhoun became the 30th trainer to win 3,000 races when Most Mischief scored a narrow victory in the eighth race Sunday at Fair Grounds.

Calhoun, a 54-year-old Texas native, had been stalking the milestone for several days.

“Just getting that last win – it’s hard to get over the hump,” said Calhoun. “I had an odds-on favorite lost last night at Houston. It feels great.”

Calhoun, who’s trained two Breeders’ Cup winners, had his first starters in 1994 and had only 26 winners his first four years training, but his operation steadily gained momentum, eventually topping out at 233 wins during 2010.

“There were years we were really rolling, but we’re not the flavor of the month any more so we’ve had to raise the stock over the last several years and things have gone a little slower,” said Calhoun.

“Thinking about everyone that has been in this game over such a long time and only 29 other people have done it – it’s kind of mind-boggling.”

Calhoun is one of 16 active trainers in the 3,000-win club and three of the others – Steve Asmussen, Tom Amoss, and Bernie Flint – also are stabled at Fair Grounds this winter.