from Standardbred Canada

If I Can Dream pulled off a dreamy victory in the 33rd edition of the C$560,000 Confederation Cup for 3-year-old pacers at Flamboro Downs on Sunday afternoon (August 16).

With luck on his side, If I Can Dream drew the rail heading into the final after finishing second to Bay Of Sharks in the first of two elimination heats held earlier in the day. While elim winner, River Shark (Luc Ouellette), fired off the gate from Post 5 in the rich final, Jim Morrill, Jr. sent If I Can Dream to the lead from third before the :26.4 first quarter.

From there, the Western Hanover-Arterra colt carved out middle splits of :56 and 1:24 and turned back a challenge from Lyons Horace (Randy Waples) en route to victory in 1:52.1 by 2-1/4 lengths. River Shark finished second and Bay Of Sharks (Mario Baillargeon) rolled three-wide at three-quarters to come on for third.

“You’ve got to have a lot of luck and we were lucky and drew the rail in the final so today was our day,” said Morrill following the race.

Trained by Tracy Brainard for the Bulletproof Enterprises of Boca Raton, Florida, If I Can Dream won for the sixth time in 11 outings this year. The bay boosted his bankroll to C$986,888 with his eighth lifetime score.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Josh Marks, Brainard’s assistant trainer. “Never in a million years did I expect to win this race.

“I know we’ve got the Jug and the Cane Pace (coming up),” he added. “Everything depends on how he comes out of today with double heats. I’ve never had a horse do that before so we’ll see what happens after today.

“We tried to avoid the Chester horses today by coming here, but we’ll face them in the Jug and it won’t be quite as easy.”