Hightstown, NJ — There is no place like home for millionaire trotting mare M-M’s Dream.
True, the two-time Indiana Sire Stakes champion has brought her game successfully on the road since turning 4 last year, winning multiple times on the Grand Circuit, but she has certainly enjoyed the home cooking at Harrah’s Hoosier Park throughout her career.
In 26 lifetime starts at Hoosier Park, M-M’s Dream has posted 21 wins, three seconds and a third. Her only off-the-board finish came in her second career race, when she made a break in the first turn. Her three second-place finishes — including in both her Breeders Crown elimination and the Breeders Crown final last year at Hoosier, won by Jiggy Jog S with a track-record 1:51.1 performance — came by a total of just more than half a length.
And this past May, M-M’s Dream equaled the 1:51.1 track record for a female trotter.
“I think she knows where the finish line is at Hoosier,” said Henry Graber Jr., who trains the mare in Indiana for his family’s Eleven Star Stables, Frank Baldachino, and Hillside Stables. “And she knows where the winner’s circle is.”
On Friday, after three months of racing on the East Coast and in Canada, M-M’s Dream returns to Hoosier Park for the $200,000 Caesars Trotting Classic. She is the lone female participant in the 10-horse field of older trotters and will start from post 10 in the second tier with driver Tim Tetrick. She is the 9-2 third choice on the morning line, behind 5-2 favorite Periculum and 7-2 Winner’s Bet.
Racing from Hoosier Park, which also includes the $165,000 Hoosier Park Pacing Derby among other stakes, begins at 6 p.m. (EDT). Coverage of the 15-race card will air from 8-11 p.m. on FS1. The Pacing Derby is race 12 and the Trotting Classic is race 13.
“I’d rather be on the gate, but with the way the draw came up, I think I’d rather have the 10 than the nine,” Graber said. “There is a lot of speed inside. I’m sure Timmy will work out a trip for her. She can do it any way. She just loves to race.”
For her career, M-M’s Dream has hit the board in 43 of 48 races, winning 31 and earning $1.69 million. Her victories at Hoosier include her two INSS championships, in 2021 and 2022, as well as the 2022 Crossroads of America. On the road, she won last year’s Hambletonian Maturity, John R. Steele Memorial, Miss Versatility Series championship, and Bob Miecuna Invitational Trot. She repeated in the Steele this season.
Other wins this year for M-M’s Dream include two legs of the Miss Versatility Series and her elimination of the Armbro Flight Stakes. She finished second in the final.
She was off the board in her two most recent races, the first from post nine in the final of the Maple Leaf Trot at Woodbine Mohawk Park, and the second in a 10-horse field going 1-1/16 miles at MGM Yonkers Raceway in the Miecuna Invitational. She was eighth for much of the way in the Miecuna before going four wide on the last turn and closing quickly to finish fourth.
“She’s been good,” Graber said. “A couple trips didn’t work out, but otherwise she’s raced really well. Her last start, she trotted home hard and came out of the race good. She trained good and we’re looking for a good effort Friday.”
Graber, who trained M-M’s Dream for her first 23 races before turning her over to Ron Burke for her Grand Circuit starts, is always happy to see the mare come back home for a while.
“Absolutely,” Graber said. “When she’s here, you don’t hear much out of her. She just does her thing. She can be a little sassy now and then, but if they don’t have some sass to them, then a lot of times they’re not that good. For the most part, she’s just a smart horse. She’s never out of a race, she always tries to find a way to get there. It’s not always a win, but there are not many that have the résumé she has.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever have another one like her again.”
Three mares — Bella Bellini in 2022, Hannelore Hanover in 2016, and Bee A Magician in 2015 — have won the Caesars Trotting Classic, or previously named editions of the event, since its Hoosier Park debut in 2013.
Friday’s field includes returning champion It’s Academic, who will start from post one with David Miller driving for trainer Burke. Periculum, who won the Maple Leaf Trot and finished second in the MGM Yonkers International Trot in his two most recent outings, will leave from post four with Scott Zeron in the sulky for Marcus Melander.
For more information about Friday’s card, click here. For free daily Hoosier Park programs, visit the track’s website here.