Hurricane Dream, often a bridesmaid but never the bride in graded and group stakes competition, could be poised to reach the altar for the first time in the $200,000 Dinner Party Stakes (G3) on Saturday at historic Pimlico Race Course.
The 122nd running of the 1 1/8-mile Dinner Party for 3-year-olds and up on the grass will be the eighth of 10 stakes, six graded, worth $2.6 million in purses on a blockbuster 14-race program headlined by the 148th Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
Pimlico's oldest stakes race and the eighth-oldest in the country, the Dinner Party was contested at two miles for its 1870 debut, won by Hall of Famer Preakness. The distance has changed nine times over its history, returning this year to the current 1 1/8 miles for the first time since 2013 after being held the previous nine years at 1 1/16 miles.
Owned by Team Valor International and trained by Graham Motion, Hurricane Dream enters the Dinner Party off of an eye-catching 4 ½-length allowance win last month at Keeneland Race Course.
“He's 6 years young,” Team Valor CEO Barry Irwin said of the French-bred gelding, which has made 20 starts. “We've been very careful with him. He's the kind of horse, he's always thereabouts (among the top finishers). But he's never won a big one.”
Campaigned in France throughout the early part of his career, Hurricane Dream took part in 10 group stakes, finishing second four times with one third. He made his U.S. debut in January in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park, finishing 10th, beaten four lengths.
“He didn't run badly,” Irwin said. “But he never really got on track. So we sent him to Fair Hill (Training Center), backed off him and got him happy.”
The gelding followed that effort with his Keeneland win, which resulted in one of the highest Equibase speed figures (119) for any horse this year in a two-turn turf event.
“The timing of this race is good, the distance is good, and he's sharp as a tack,” Irwin said.
One of the top contenders that Hurricane Dream will have to get past is Three Diamonds Farm's Atone, who was third after setting the pace in last year's Dinner Party and opened his 2023 campaign with a ¾-length win in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational. Atone is trained by Michael Maker.
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Speaking Scout, who was third to Atone in the Pegasus, is also entered in the Dinner Party for Motion, who will saddle three horses in the race.
WinStar Farm LLC and Siena Farm LLC's Emmanuel, who won the Canadian Turf Handicap (G3) at Gulfstream in March, is also expected to contest the Dinner Party. Todd Pletcher trains.
The other members of the projected 7-horse field include Courtlandt Farm's Never Explain (trainer Shug McGaughey), Russell Welch and Ran Leonard's Rising Empire (trainer Brandan Walsh) and Madaket Stables' Easter (Motion).
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