NEWS: RACING

Ocala Dream scores in Spectacular Bid for late sire Effinex

Saturday, June 19th, 2021

Ocala Dream, a son of the late Effinex, makes it two in a row in Saturday’s Spectacular Bid division of the New York Stallion Stakes. NYRA Photo.

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog

After breaking his maiden on the Belmont Park turf last month, Ocala Dream was quick to add a stakes victory to his resume Saturday with a victory in the $150,000 Spectacular Bid division of the New York Stallion Stakes.

The chestnut son of the late Effinex broke among the leaders in the 7-furlong restricted turf stakes and immediately gave himself an advantage. Ocala Dream settled among a trio a few lengths behind the leading Dreamer’s Disease and The King Cheek as they set opening fractions of :22.82 and :45.61 for the first half-mile. Jockey Junior Alvarado had Ocala Dream well in hand as they joined the leaders late in the turn with the colt going four wide to take command into the stretch.

Ocala Dream had to hold off 52-1 shot Barrage in the stretch but he started pulling away from that rival in the final sixteenth. The margin was cut down by a late-closing Step Dancer, a son of War Dancer who was a length behind him at the line. Barrage, another son of War Dancer, settled for third. Ocala Dream won in 1:21.20 for his second win from three starts this year. He’s finished on the board in three of his five starts.

“It’s always a big edge when you have a horse who breaks out of the gate very good,” Alvarado said. “It helps you to get the position you want. He broke alertly and put himself in a good spot, I just had to guide him turning for home. Once I got him in the clear, he knew what to do after that. I kept after him just a little bit to get the job done. He wasn’t the favorite but he was much the best today.”

Racing for Thomas Albrecht, Vincent Fusaro and James Klein, Ocala Dream boosted his bankroll to $137,600. Bred by Mahwinney, Liberman, Beglin and Coutsodontis and foaled at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson, Ocala Dream gave the late Effinex his first stakes winner.

Going through the ring last year as a 2-year-old, the colt was purchased for $50,000 at the OBS March sale racing co-owner Thomas Albrecht from the Daylight Farm Racing & Sales consignment.

Ocala Dream opens up late in Saturday’s Spectacular Bid division of the NYSS. NYRA Photo.

“We bought him in Ocala last year just when COVID hit,” Albrecht said. “We didn’t even think the sale was going to happen when we were down there. Everything was getting cancelled. But we bought him, we have a good bloodstock agent in Conor Foley of Oracle Bloodstock. They do a fantastic job and so does [trainer] Tom Morley and his staff. We’re really pleased. We’re looking forward to the $150,000 Cab Calloway [July 28 at Saratoga Race Course].”

Ocala Dream is a second-generation New York-bred with Kentucky-bred granddam Smoke N Shadows spending her five-race career on the NYRA circuit. The mare then joined the New York breeding pool and produced Ocala Dream’s dam Eleni’s Daughter as her sixth foal.

The Freud daughter won one of her two starts and was retired after that maiden-breaking run for Jay Liberman. She has stayed in New York after her racing days were over and has three winners from four to race.

The mare also has an unnamed Florida-bred 2-year-old Mission Impazible filly who is a full sister to the winning 4-year-old gelding Operative.

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