- NYRA/Chelsea Durand
Carameaway, followed across the line by entrymate Dreaming of Cara, ran one-two in the $100,000 Saratoga Dew Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares at Saratoga Racecourse on Thursday. Richard Greeley is the owner/breeder of Carameaway, and owner of Dreaming of Cara. Mitch Friedman trains both horses.
Carameaway began the nine-furlong contest with a groundsaving trip around the first turn under jockey Rajiv Maragh before moving off the rail in the backstretch to stalk pacesetter Easy Living. Moving early in the far turn and taking over the lead, Carameaway returned to the rail and opened up under urging in the stretch. Without a serious challenge, she crossed the finish line a 3 1/2-length winner.
Stablemate and closer Dreaming of Cara came from well off the pace, tipping out at the quarter pole and getting up for second. Completing the order of finish were Get Gorgeous, Royal Suspicion, Easy Living, Little Rocket and favorite Tahoe Tigress. After an opening half-mile in 48.34 and mile in 1:38.84, Carameaway stopped the clock in 1:52.54 after 1 1/8 miles over the good going. [VIDEO]
Mitch Friedman’s response to his training coup was, “I’m glad for the owner [Richard Greeley]. He’s put a lot of money into this business. He’s a loyal breeder and a loyal owner. He deserves it.”
Rajiv Maragh seemed to feel that had a picture-perfect trip aboard Carameaway, especially since he stayed clean. “She broke really well, she was up there early, and she was really willing to go,” said Maragh. “I got in the clear and we didn’t get dirty, which I was happy about. I just kept her in the clear and she just powered away from the field today. No one really got in range of her. She just took over midway on the turn, and once she opened up, there were really no anxious moments after that.”
Friedman added, “I just told [Rajiv Maragh] to lay off the pace a little bit, and he kept asking me, ‘How am I going to do that?’ I said, ‘Just try.’ So he stayed second a little bit, and it worked out.”
Friedman said he was expecting an outstanding performance from the 4-year-old daughter of Lawyer Ron. “Yeah, absolutely I was [confident]. Last time [Carameaway] ran [finishing eighth in the Critical Eye Stakes on May 31 at Belmont], she ran a subpar race but she was sick. We gave her the time to get better. She’s training forwardly; we worked a :46 half-mile and it was a good work. So she’s doing good.”
Friedman also said he felt confident going in about Dreaming of Cara’s chances. “Looking at the pace of the race last time (Saratoga allowance on August 4), it was almost :50 [for the opening half-mile] and the three-quarters was like 1:15. Everyone kept saying it was a bad race, but it wasn’t. She’s a one-turn closer and she couldn’t make up ground that day. So it was a good race. I expected both of these fillies to run well today.”
Carameaway, who was foaled at Cedar Ridge Farm Pine Plains, is the first foal out of Adorable You, a winning daughter of Grand Slam out of a stakes winner, who was campaigned by Greeley and trained by Friedman. Adorable You’s 2-year-old filly My Cara Mia by Colonel John shows a breeze this summer at Saratoga and her yearling colt by Include was purchased by Mike Ryan for $150,000 last weekend at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale. The mare currently has a weanling colt by Macho Uno and was bred this year to Freud.
Carameaway’s first stakes victory improves her record to 4-5-3 from 23 starts and brings her career earnings to $266,220.
