Last fall suburban Chicago owner-breeders Frank Calabrese and Jim Tafel achieved racing world renown when their respective horses won Breeders’ Cup championship races. Saturday afternoon Arlington Park will present three Breeders’ Cup prep races and horses bred and owned by Calabrese and Tafel are cast in prominent roles.
Dreaming of Anna, Calabrese’s 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and national champion 2-year-old filly, is the 5-2 morning line favorite in the main event, the Grade III $200,000 Pucker Up Stakes, a 1 1/8 -mile grass race for 3-year-old fillies.
Her stablemate, Dreaming of Liz, is projected as the 4-1 third choice in the Grade III $150,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes, a 1-mile Polytrack race for 2-year-old fillies that Calabrese is hoping will be her ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Monmouth Park on Oct. 27.
Tafel, whose 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and national champion 2-year-old male Street Sense has gone on to win the Kentucky Derby and Travers, has 2-1 second choice Coolwind running in the Grade III $150,000 Arlington Matron, the track’s top Polytrack race for fillies and mares. Coolwind is taking on added ground after winning two of her three races at the Arlington meeting for her Barrington owner-breeder at distances of 1 mile and 7 1/2 furlongs.
Although the morning line suggests that Dreaming of Liz has the toughest assignment, Calabrese and his trainer, Wayne Catalano, and stable manager, Steve Leving, believe she has the ability to excel. Reinforcing their confidence is Monday’s impressive 5-furlong workout in 56 3/5 seconds.
She rebounded from a fourth-place finish in her July 13 debut to overcome a stumbling start and surge to a 7-length victory in an Aug. 10 Arlington maiden race.
Now, after winning decisively, Dreaming of Liz is stepping up in class.
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