Spring is in the air in Victoria with the state’s famous carnival under way.  The second of two Group One races on the Caulfield card on Saturday, the Group I Underwood Stakes (1800m), was taken out in determined fashion by Heart of Dreams (Show A Heart - Academy of Dreams by Royal Academy).
  Trained at the course by Mick Price, Heart of Dreams gave him his second win in the event - the first was Rubiscent in 2007.  He also gave Glenlogan Park Stud’s resident stallion Show a Heart his second stakes winner on the card.
   Heart Of Dreams is raced by his breeders Craig and Larry Bartle who had instructed Price to campaign the bay four-year-old in weight-for-age events this spring in the hope they would have a Cox Plate runner. 

   Heart of Dreams has now kept alive the Cox Plate dream for his connections.
  Price had earlier in the week told various news outlets that he had hoped to set Heart Of Dreams for the Group I Toorak - a handicap. 
   Speaking with TVN’s Bruce Clark, “This was the day, if he hadn’t been able to carry weight-for-age properly, have a nice run in the race and win, it was three weeks to the Toorak,” Price said.
   “It probably means we’ll have to go to the Yalumba now and on to the Cox Plate.
“He had a nice run in the race. I thought he might have been a bit on the fresh side but he settled really well.
  “I suppose we’ll go to the Yalumba and test him over 2000 metres.
  Ridden by Craig Newitt, Heart Of Dreams enjoyed a midfield trail before he hit the lead and held out Whobegotyou (Street Cry – Temple of Peace by Carnegie) by a long neck.
   Predatory Pricer (Street Cry – Shady Stream by Archregent), who settled on the pace behind Typhoon Tracy, held on for third only a short head away.
  Bartle not only landed the Underwood, but earlier claimed the Listed South Yarra Stakes (1200m) with Heart Of Dream’s year older full-brother Rightfully Yours.
  Both are by Show A Heart out of the Royal Academy mare Academy Of Dreams.
  Heart Of Dreams won the 2009 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington last season and he is a super little racehorse.   A fierce competitor he was always going to improve off his fifth placing to Vigor in the Group 2 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) at Flemington a month earlier.
   Newitt gave him a grand ride having him off the speed and following last season’s Cox Plate hero Maldivian.   Heart of Dreams was clearly headed by the race favourite Whobegotyou but he toughed it out to beat the son of Street Cry.
   Academy Of Dreams, who didn’t win a race, was sent to Show A Heart producing the smart Rightfully Yours (eight wins) who until Saturday hadn’t won a stakes event. Now she has two stakes winners and a dual group one winner who has won five and been placed on another three occasions from his 11 starts.
   Academy Dreams is out of the Listed Ballarat Cup winner, Dream About It (by Godswalk), who in turn is a half-sister to the Group I Goodwood Handicap winner, French Clock (by Rancho Ruler) and the Listed winner Ladybird Blue (by Bluebird).
   Rightfully Yours’ stakes victory takes Show a Heart’s tally of stakes winners to nine.
  A son of Brave Warrior and Miss Sandman (by Regal Advice), Show A Heart  took six starts to break his maiden, and, went on to develop into a better horse than either his sire or grandsire.
    When his elusive first win came, it was in the Doomben Slipper, and Show a Heart went on to add, in succession, the Group I  T.J. Smith Stakes, and the BTC Listed Golden Stakes.
   Tried against top-class opposition over a wide variety of distances during his classic year, Show A Heart won just once in 13 starts, but that win came in the Group I Caulfield Guineas (1600m). After a crack at the 2500m of the Victoria Derby, he returned in the Autumn to finish runner-up in both the Group I Oakleigh Plate (1100m) and the Group I Newmarket Handicap (1200m).
  As a four-year, Show A Heart was campaigned purely as a sprinter/miler, and he enjoyed his best year, capturing the Toorak and Stradbroke Handicaps (both Group 1), and finished second in the Group I Australia Stakes and the Group I Doomben 10000 (G1).
   Show a Heart stands at Glenlogan Park for a fee of $33,000 (inc gst).  His fee remains the same as last season after covering a large book of 176 mares in 2008.

Permalink| Sep 21, 2009

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