No Bad Dreams, driven by Kevin Wallis, survived a rugged opening quarter and went on to score a 'three-peat' victory in Pompano Park's $9,500 "Winner's Over" Handicap Pace on Saturday night (May 30).
The four-year-old altered son of Dream Away pinned a one length defeat on the late-surging Northern Companion (Tom Sells) in 1:51.2. Rajis Blue Line (Ben Mc Neil) finished third followed by Whos Your Maddy and Hillybilly in the quintet.
At the outset, Hillybilly, leaving from post four, and No Bad Dreams, one notch further out, got into a tussle with Hillybilly hitting the opening marker in a hot :26.4 before finally yielding to No Bad Dreams shortly thereafter.
Once on top, No Bad Dreams reached the half in :55 and maintained a clear lead heading into the final turn. That's when Hillybilly left the cozy pocket and moved within a length of the leader at the third station clocked in 1:23.2.
In the lane, No Bad Dreams edged clear of Hillybilly with Northern Companion pinching a pylon or two before rallying late to miss by a non-threatening length.
In a post race interview, Wallis said, "There was a little hardball going on early and, for just a moment, I thought I could nestle in somewhere close but nothing developed to tuck anywhere so I had two choices. I could have pulled back to last or gone on. I thought I'd better go on so I wouldn't wind up five lengths back against this good field.
"He was used hard but he went another courageous trip. It's a tribute to Marc [trainer Aubin], who has him very sharp right now."
Owned by Jacalyn and Dan Boddie, No Bad Dreams won for the sixth time in eight starts this year, good for $23,800 to go along with his 1:50.3 mark set in his last two starts.
As the 1-5 toteboard favourite, No Bad Dreams paid $2.60 to win.
The Aubin-Boddie connection struck again later in the program when Abreathofreshart scored a handy win for Bruce Ranger in 1:52.1, a new lifetime mark.
This four-year-old son of Artistic Fella took command after the :28 opener and proceeded to clock fractions of :56.1 and 1:24 before sprinting home in :28.1 to score by two and a half lengths over Stiletto Jake (Andy Santeramo) with Avantage (Rob Hoffman) third.
A non-winner at ages two and three covering 15 starts, Abreathofreshart now sports a 4-4-2 scorecard in 12 starts, good for $16,815 for this budding star.
In other action, Bring On The Beach, the three-year-old full brother to the great Somebeachsomewhere, made his second lifetime pari-mutuel start and kept his record perfect with a very sharp 1:54.1 win for Bruce Ranger.
Trained by Jim Mc Donald for the consortium of Dan MacIssac, the Marden Stables and Paradox Farm, Bring On The Beach left sharply from his post six before yielding around turn one and sitting chilly through panels of :27.2, :57.2 and 1:25.4. He left the pocket around the final turn and gunned down a tough Motorcity Pawnstar (Dan Harvey) on the strength of a :28.1 finale -- the margin of victory measuring four lengths. Goldstar Kenny P (Mickey McNichol) was third in the mile.
After the mile, Ranger quipped, "It was a good mile for him -- he's still green, you know -- but he's still got a bit to go to catch up to his brother!"
Bring On The Beach was 1-9 on the board (but 1-20 in reality) and paid $2.10 to win.
Driver Dan Harvey did get a bit of revenge on Ranger the next race when he guided Histoire Eternelle to victory in the $8,500 co-feature for the consortium of Marc Major, Raynald Phaneuf, Patrick Dillaire and Richard Robert in 1:52.1 over G P S Legacy (Ranger) with Fly N With Royalty (Wallis) third.
Off at 21-1, Histoire Eternelle paid $45.40 to win and sparked a Pick-5 carryover going into the next racing program on Wednesday.
Yet another carryover developed for the next mid-week card when Kommander Hawk (Ben Mc Neil) took care of things in the Super Hi-5 finale. Off at 7-1, the "Hawk" was followed across the line by Cascata (26-1), Four Starz Kyle (60-1), Orator (19-1) and Milliondollartouch (7-5) with the Hi-5 combo coming back 5-7-ALL-ALL-ALL and returning $201.44 with the carryover now at $2,307.48 heading into the Wednesday program.
The race also produced a superfecta carryover approaching $1,500 into the next program's opener. Post time is 7:30 p.m.
(With files from Pompano Park)