Home

CAUGHT DREAM’N floats home for first win

Details: Published: 16 October 2017

The 2-year-old filly CAUGHT DREAM’N is on her way to making big dreams come true after an easy maiden win at Laurel Park on Sunday, Oct. 15. Going six furlongs in her second start, the Phil Schoenthal-trained daughter of Blame waited patiently until Sheldon Russell tipped her out to make a run rounding the far turn. She took aim at the leader and dug in through the stretch to pull away for an impressive two-length score.

The win followed an eventful debut two weeks earlier in which she rallied to finish second after unseating Russell in the post parade, dropping nearly a dozen lengths back in the early running, being blocked and then having to alter course before outfinishing 10 others.

POSEIDON’S WARRIOR a Grade 1 Sire!

Details: Published: 09 October 2017

Grade 1 winner and Maryland-bred champion POSEIDON’S WARRIOR, bred by Dark Hollow Farm and William Paca Beatson, explodes out of the gate as a Grade 1 sire!

FIRENZE FIRE, a member of POSEIDON’S WARRIOR’s first crop, was tenacious down Belmont Park’s long stretch in the historic Champagne Stakes-G1 on Oct. 7, getting his second graded win in four starts and earning a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win & You’re In™ spot for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-G1 at Del Mar. FIRENZE FIRE, a Mr. Amore Stable homebred trained by Jason Servis, won Saratoga’s Grade 3 Sanford in his stakes debut in July.

Ranked among the top-five freshman sires in the nation, POSEIDON’S WARRIOR launched his stud career at Pleasant Acres Stallions, Morriston, Fla., after racing three seasons and winning stakes each year, most spectacularly during a 4-year-old campaign that saw him take Saratoga’s Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap-G1 and finish third in the Belmont’s Grade 1 Vosburgh Invitational.

Another knockout for Safe Journey

Details: Published: 15 September 2017

KEE hip698R jd 7x10 7918EM It’s been a long and wonderful journey for the family of Dark Hollow Farm’s foundation mare Safely Home, and her granddaughter Safe Journey continues to build on tradition. David and JoAnn Hayden’s homebred mare became the dam of her third six-figure sales horse as her Bodemeister yearling colt brought $280,000 during the third session of Keeneland’s September sale, Wednesday, Sept. 13. The price well exceeded the day’s average.

The handsome bay, born April 14, was picked out by Patti Miller of the savvy EQB bloodstock agency, with Justin Zayat signing the ticket. EQB has become well-regarded for its selection of future stakes horses by using analytics and sports medicine on top of horsemanship.

The Bodemeister colt has stakes horses and quality in spades, as his sire has a Kentucky Derby winner in his first crop, and his dam has produced three stakes horses from her first five foals. Safe Journey has had a stakes performer every year since 2013, as the dam of Joy, a multiple stakes winner of $245,204, 2017 stakes-winning 3-year-old O Dionysus (also by Bodemeister), who has earned $216,272 in 10 starts; and Combat Diver, a stakes-placed earner of $153,080.

Zayat, whose family campaigned classic-placed Bodemeister, said the new purchase reminds him of Bodemeister, and they know the family, having been following O Dionysus throughout his campaign. O Dionysus sold for $190,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling sale, the highest price for a yearling colt in that sale. Combat Diver was a $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-year-old.
Safe Journey has a stellar Malibu Moon colt this year, and was bred back to champion sprinter Runhappy.

Fly takes off in 3-year-old debut

Details: Published: 01 May 2017

First race in nearly six months? No worries! Trainer Phil Schoenthal had Fly ready for her 3-year-old debut. The daughter of Brilliant Speed flew down the stretch in a five and a half-furlong turf allowance at Laurel Park on Saturday, April 29, held off nine rivals and scored by a length and a half. It was the second career win for the filly owned by Dark Hollow Farm, Arnold and Susie Davidov, Cal MacWilliam, Neil Teitelbaum, Rick Wallace and Kingdom Bloodstock – she broke her maiden first-time out in August at Laurel.

The final foal out of Breeders’ Cup Sprint-G1 champion Desert Stormer (by Storm Cat), Schoenthal picked out the Kentucky-bred filly at the Keeneland September Yearling sale, spending $80,000. With a record of 5-2-1-0, Fly has earnings of $66,060, and stakes opportunities in the future. The filly missed blacktype by a nose in her second career start when fourth in the historic Selima Stakes over the Laurel turf last September.

O Dionysus takes next step to classic dreams

Details: Published: 21 February 2017

The handsome Bodemeister colt O Dionysus, campaigned by Peter G. Angelos’ Marathon Farms, got his first win of the year in the $75,000 Miracle Wood Saturday, Feb. 18 at Laurel Park, and did it with aplomb, striding home a three-length winner as the 4-5 favorite in the field of eight. The Dark Hollow Farm-bred colt was making his fifth consecutive stakes start, and recorded his second stakes win, having captured the $75,000 Christopher Elser Memorial Stakes at Parx Racing in November.

Two of O Dionysus’ efforts between the wins were second-place finishes in the Marylander Stakes in his final start at 2 on December 31, and Frank Whiteley Jr. Stakes three weeks later. The Marylander was a sensational effort against one of the leaders of the sophomore class, Irish War Cry. The two battled from the far turn to the wire, with a nose separating them at the finish. In his next start, Irish War Cry won the Holy Bull Stakes-G2 at Gulfstream Park over a field that included last year’s champion juvenile Classic Empire and multiple graded winner Gunnevera.

O Dionysus joins ranks of Safely Home stakes winners

Details: Published: 13 November 2016

Making a dramatic move heading into the far turn, O Dionysus drew off to his first stakes win in his stakes debut, taking the $75,000 Christopher Elser Memorial Stakes at Parx Racing on Nov. 12. Among those he flew by was multiple stakes winner Greatbullsoffire.

The 2-year-old Gary Capuano trainee was last early before making his move. The big-striding colt went on to win by two and a quarter lengths, completing the six and a half furlongs in 1:18.19. It was the second win in four starts for the handsome bay, and he becomes the second stakes winner for top-five freshman sire Bodemeister.

Page 4 of 8