Last week trainer Bill Kaplan saw his Eclipse Award winning mare Musical Romance make her swan song appearance at his Calder Casino and Race Course base while winning the Mike Sherman Memorial Stakes. It was the mare’s final preparation before traveling to Santa Anita in Southern California for her title defense and last career start in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) to be run Nov 2.
Saturday, Kaplan will be bringing his 2-year-old starlet Putyourdreamsaway to the saddling paddock at Calder before the biggest race of her young career as she goes in the $300,000 My Dear Girl Division of the Florida Stallion Stakes. Not that she is expected to become another Musical Romance by winning the 1 1⁄16 My Dear Girl against eight rivals, but the irony is there.
The My Dear Girl Division of the Florida Stallion Stakes is part of a stakes-filled afternoon of racing at Calder that makes up the 21st annual Festival of the Sun that will also feature the $300,000 estimated In Reality Division for colts and geldings, also to be run over 1 1⁄16 miles on the main track. Three other stakes help complete the rich day including the $100,000 Spend A Buck Handicap, the $75,000 Tropical Park Derby and the $75,000 Frances A. Genter Stakes.
Owned by Ione and Herbert Elkins of Hollywood, Fla., Putyourdreamsaway is the 5-2 morning line favorite in the My Dear Girl, as she tries for her second victory in the prestigious Florida Stallion Stakes after winning the $125,000 Susan’s Girl Division by an eloquent seven and one-half lengths at Calder on Aug. 25. Combine that with her second-place finish in the $75,000 Desert Vixen Division of the Florida Stallion Stakes behind winner Candy Coded Kisses on July 28 and Putyourdreamsaway appears to have the talent and experience deserving of her role as the program choice.
Bred in Florida by Karen and Greg Dodd’s Southern Chase Farm Inc., in Williston, Putyourdreamsaway is by Put It Back, who stands at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala and is out of the City Place mare Beauty for Ashes. Having also broken her maiden at Calder in July against special weight maidens, the chestnut filly will be making her fourth career start in the My Dear Girl and hopes to add to her $115,975 in earnings.
That is not a bad bankroll for a young filly that was just purchased by Kaplan for the Elkins at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company April Sale of Two Year Olds in Training where she brought $20,000 from the Dodd’s Southern Chase Farm consignment.
Jockey Juan Leyva, who has been aboard Putyourdreamsaway in all of her three previous races, will be in the irons again when they break from the six gate in the My Dear Girl.
Second choice in the morning line at 4-1 in the program is Jewel in the Sky, who was fourth, beaten 11 lengths by Putyourdreamsaway in the Susan’s Girl Division of the Florida Stallion Stakes. Trained by Martin Wolfson for Miller Racing LLC, Jewel in the Sky will be looking for her first stakes victory to go along with her first win against $40,000 maiden claimers at Calder June 9—a race in which she became the first winner for her sire Circular Quay who stands at Journeyman Stud in Ocala—and a score against first level allowance fillies in August, also a Calder.
In two other starts in stakes company, Jewel in the Sky finished a disappointing sixth in the June 30, $70,000 J J’s Dream Stakes and ninth in the $72,000 Cassidy Stakes on Sept. 29, both a Calder, so she will have to step up if she hopes to have an impact on the My Dear Girl.
Jewel in the Sky was bred in Florida by Gilbert Campbell of Tyngsboro, Mass., and she will be ridden by jockey Hugo Sanchez. Jewel in the Sky has drawn post three.
Others who will be getting support through the mutual windows before the My Dear Girl are So Blessed, a recent winner of a maiden special weight at Calder on Sept. 16 and third in the Desert Vixen Division of the Florida Stallion Stakes; Candy Coded Kisses, winner of that Desert Vixen Divison; and Ashlee’s Princess, a recent maiden winner at Calder against maiden special weight company on Sept. 29.
Photo by Coady
