beginning.
Excerpted From 2/19/11 Thoroughbred Daily News-
Dream is allowing her connections to do just that after two impressive victories to open her career. The filly is owned by her breeders, Dark Hollow Farm's JoAnn and David Hayden, Arnold Davidov, Alice Wolf, Dorsey Brown and David Schwaber, and races under the banner Dark Hollow Racing Partnership. The group purchased the three-year-old's dam Dream Out Loud (Stravinsky) for $315,000 at the 2006 Keeneland November Sale. The mare, then five, was carrying her first foal, a colt by Gone West who later would be sold as a yearling for $100,000 at the '08 September Sale.
"She was just a beautiful physical," David Hayden said yesterday. "She was a very pretty, elegant mare, and she had enough pedigree for us."
Dream Out Loud, from the extended family of the Grade I-winning grass horses Damister (Mr. Prospector) and Selous Scout (Effervescing), is a half-sister to another accomplished turf runner in English highweight and millionaire Magistretti (Diesis {GB}), whose victories included the GI Man o'War S. at Belmont.
When it came time to picking Dream Out Loud's second mate, the partners chose Malibu Moon, a fitting choice given that the son of A.P. Indy got his start in Maryland, where Dark Hollow calls home.
"I just love him as a stallion," said David. "I didn't breed to him when he stood here for $3,500, but I'm happy to breed to him now at his current fee [of $60,000]."
The mating produced Dream, who was precluded from the yearling sales with an unsightly ailment.
"She had some calcification on one of her hind hooves, and it was a blemish that would have put a lot of people off," said Hayden. "Plus, she had a little bit of a splint. If we had sold her, we would have gotten hammered. So thank God for blemishes."
Put into training with Rodney Jenkins, Dream gave every indication the decision not to sell was the right one, and the word was out in her debut, when she went postward as the 4-5 choice in a 5 1/2-furlong dash at Delaware in July.
"In the paddock before the race, Larry Jones said to Rodney, 'Hey Rodney, how come you're running that four-year-old filly against these two-year-olds?'" Hayden recalled. "She's just a big, good-looking filly with a lot of power."
When she won off by nearly five lengths in an impressive effort, Hayden said she was simply living up to expectations.
"I'll just say she did what we thought she'd do," he said.
Unfortunately, small chips in each knee, as well as one in an ankle, put a stop to the rest of Dream's two-year-old year.
"But we took them out and gave her all the time she needed," Hayden explained. Asked what's next, he added, "Well, we'll have to look at a schedule. Two other-thans can be hard to find sometimes.
Obviously we'll look at some stakes, too. Ultimately, we really think she wants to go long, and I think she'll love the grass, too."
Dream's dam Dream Out Loud produced an Elusive Quality filly in 2009, had a Street Boss filly in 2010 and will head to WinStar stallion Speightstown in the near future.
Nearly the entire breeding partnership made the trip to Laurel yesterday.
"Everybody but Alice Wolf was there; she lives in Naples," said Hayden. "We just had a great time."
If Dream keeps progressing, the great times may just be beginning.
