Dreaming of Alys a good-looking debut winner
It’s a Toledo Triple!
LAUREL, MD – A change in running styles suited Stronsino well in Friday’s featured eighth race at Laurel Park, a second-level allowance with a $32,000 claiming option for 3-year-olds and upward at one mile.
Normally a one-run closer, Stronsino moved to the lead exiting the chute, relaxed nicely under jockey Carlos Lopez through easy fractions of 24.37, 47.89, and 1:12.59 seconds, then sprinted home to prevail by a widening 7 ½ lengths in 1:37.46 over the fast track.
Uncoupled stablemate Arrow Speed won a good battle for second, a half-length better than Mosler Time. Then came Your Analysis, Magic Mule, and Sagrada Ray.
“I watched the replays of this horse, and he always doesn’t have a good break,” Lopez said. “I wanted to have a good break and see what happened. When I saw that he went to the front alone, he was very comfortable. He did everything right.”
Lopez was a bit surprised when Sagrada Ray tried to slip through along the inside at the half-mile pole.
“He tried to pass on the inside,” Lopez explained. “On the turn, every horse changes leads, and they [drift] in a little bit. That’s normal. I [couldn’t believe] he was there.”
Sagrada Ray shuffled back slightly along the fence and was thereafter a non-factor.
Stronsino returned $4.60 as the betting favorite.
Stronsino, a 4-year-old gelding by Dialed In, sold for $135,000 as a weanling, then went for $215,000 as a yearling. He made four unsuccessful starts for trainer Steve Asmussen before being purchased for $90,000 last summer at a digital auction.
Since transferring to trainer Jamie Ness’s barn, Stronsino has won three of eight starts for a partnership that includes Ness’s Jagger Inc., Madison Avenue Racing Stable, and Morris Kernan Jr.
Bred in Kentucky by Aurello Cielo, Stronsino is out of a half-sister to stakes-placed Sea Art. He has earned $195,840.
“When I [asked] the first time, he won easy,” Lopez said.
*Dreaming of Alys a good-looking debut winner
Trainer Gary Capuano was impressed.
“She made two or three different runs,” Capuano said after Dreaming of Alys won her debut in the fifth race, a $47,000 maiden special weight for juvenile fillies at 5 ½ furlongs. “On the backside, she shot up there and then had to wait. She was coming out, then ducked to the inside [in the stretch].”
Sent away the 2-1 favorite, Dreaming of Alys streaked under the wire 4 ¾ lengths better than Ginger Snap. Tacit Value, a 43-1 longshot, rallied belatedly to finish third, a length behind the runner-up. Doc’s Miracle, Last Gift, and Barbados Bulldog completed the field. Morning line favorite Mitoleisdynamite scratched.
Ridden by Yan Rodriguez, who substituted for the injured Yedsit Hazlewood, Dreaming of Alys ran the distance in 1:05.57 and returned $6.40 to win.
“She’s steadily getting better,” Capuano continued. “She started off a little slow, but we’ve been doing a lot of work with her. She’s got a lot of miles under her, so she was fit.”
Capuano selected Dreaming of Alys at last September’s Keeneland yearling sale and purchased her for $45,000 on behalf of owners London Reid Thoroughbreds and Non Stop Stable.
“She was just a nice-looking filly,” Capuano recalled. “In the sales ring, she was very professional. She has some pedigree there. I try to buy what I like, and it’s turned out pretty good.”
Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, Dreaming of Alys is by Upstart out of a half-sister to five blacktype earners, including multiple synthetic stakes-winner Blue Heart, stakes-winning turf miler Financial Recovery and Grade 3-placed dirt router Hanshin Hero.
“Once she ducks to the inside here, she really took off,” Capuano said as he watched the race replay on the infield monitor. “It was a real professional effort. That’s showing she’s got some class to her.”
*Around the track:
Jockey J G Torrealba was transported via ambulance to a local medical facility after being unseated during the stretch run of Friday’s third race. Torrealba was conscious and stable but complained of head pain, as well as right leg and right wrist discomfort…Jockey Jevian Toledo booted home three winners on Friday with two coming for trainer Horacio De Paz. On Sunday, Laurel Park hosts steeplechase racing for the first time in 25 years. The opening race on the 11-race Father’s Day program is a $40,000 maiden special weight for 4-year-olds and upward at 2 1/8 miles. The big name in the field is British Royalty, who captured the Breeders’ Stakes, the third jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown, in 2023. Now conditioned by Katherine Neilson, British Royalty finished third in a maiden special weight over jumps at Malvern on May 17…The second race, also at 2 1/8 miles, is a $45,000 “non-winners of two” allowance. Travesuras, second in the Daniel Van Clief Memorial Hurdle Stakes at Foxfield on April 26, looms a prime contender along with Sa’ad, who was stakes-placed over the flat in his native France…Live racing resumes Saturday with a nine-race program…The first post time is 12:10 ET.
