by Charlene Sharpe, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Charlene Sharpe

Seaford, DE — When Matinee Dragon won the $20,000 Fillies and Mares Open Handicap at Dover Downs last month, the bettors who overlooked her at 56-1 odds weren’t the only ones who were surprised.

Louis “Bill” Catana, who owns the mare with trainer Vincent Bradley, was shocked. Naturally he had faith in Matinee Dragon, but even he didn’t think she could go first over against the best mares in the state and win.

“She really surprised me,” Catana said. “I was watching it on my computer at home. I was screaming so loud I woke up the neighborhood.”

Fotowon photo

Matinee Dragon won at 56-1 odds on Feb. 16 at Dover Downs.

The Feb. 16 victory was just one of many for Matinee Dragon (Dragon Again-Play Ball) since she moved to the Bradley stable last year. The 6-year-old mare now boasts a lifetime mark of 1:52.4f and career earnings of more than $145,000.

Bradley, who with his son Bart trains a stable of Standardbreds in southern Delaware, says the mare caught his eye last spring.

“I liked her breeding and her build,” he said. “Dragon Again mares seem to get better with age and I decided to give her a try.”

Catana didn’t hesitate to partner with him.

“Vincent is very good at picking out horses,” he said. “He’s picked out a number of horses we’ve done well with.”

Though he had his trainer’s license for some time, Catana, 76, leaves the barn work to Bradley these days. It was the trainer, he said, who encouraged him to get back into the business when he moved to Delaware from New Jersey.

“Now we have seven horses,” he said.

Matinee Dragon is proving to be the best of them.

Photo courtesy of Bart Bradley

Matinee Dragon poses for the camera in the Bradley barn in Laurel, Del.

“She’s won 11 races for us,” Catana said.

When he and Bradley purchased the mare, she was picking up checks in the Fillies and Mares $15,000 claimer at Harrington Raceway. Bradley wasted no time in dropping her in a race designed to boost her confidence.

On June 9 of last year, Matinee Dragon made her first start for the Bradley stable a winning one, easily besting the competition in a Fillies and Mares non-winners of $1,501 at Harrington Raceway.

She moved up the ranks from there, winning a Fillies and Mares non-winners of $3,001 the following week and a non-winners of $80,001 lifetime event for fillies and mares after that. Forced to move into the Fillies and Mares Open from there, just three weeks after her first race for Bradley, she proved she was a contender, finishing third and pacing a mile in 1:53.2 on Harrington’s half-mile track.

Matinee Dragon went on to win six more races in 2015, competing against some of the best mares in the First State. She ended the season with $61,465 in earnings and a new mark of 1:53h.

Bradley says she’s no trouble in the barn.

“She’s a laid back mare,” he said. “Nothing fazes her. A child could jog her.”

Since kicking off 2016 at Dover Downs, Matinee Dragon has again worked her way up through the conditioned races to the Fillies and Mares Open. Since moving into the top class in early February, the mare has missed just one check for driver Jonathan Roberts.

In nine starts in 2016, Matinee Dragon has earned $25,065 and established a new lifetime best of 1:52.4f.

“She’s done very well,” Catana said. “She’s probably the best horse I’ve ever had. I just hope she keeps going.”

He credits Bradley with the mare’s success, and with convincing him to get back into a business he’s enjoyed since the 1980s, when he first started watching races at Liberty Bell and Freehold.

“I love it,” Catana said. “It’s something that gets in your blood.”