Dream On gets perfect ride by Castellano to take Woodhaven

The connections of Kentucky Derby contender Sandman have even more reason to continue dreaming.

Dream On, a 3-year-old turf horse owned by D J Stable and trained by Mark Casse – who next Saturday will send out Sandman in the Kentucky Derby – benefitted from a beautiful trip under Javier Castellano to win Saturday’s $125,000 Woodhaven Stakes by a neck over late-running Septarian at Aqueduct. There was a blanket finish in a slow-paced Woodhaven where the pacesetting Sounds Like a Plan held third by a nose Revolutionnaire, the 2-1 favorite. End of Romance, Tiz Dashing, and Cairo Caper completed the order of finish in a seven-horse field
separated by 1 1/2 lengths.

It was the third win from eight starts for Dream On, a son of Not This Time who brought $300,000 at the 2024 Ocala Breeders’ Sales 2-year-old-in-training auction. He had been 0 for 4 in stakes.

“Honestly, he to me, so far, has been an underachiever,” Casse said. “I always thought he was a little better than he’s run. Hopefully, today was the start of something.”

Castellano kept Dream On covered up while racing a joint third inside of Tiz Dashing, both sitting within 2 1/2 lengths of Sounds Like a Plan, who, under Kendrick Carmouche set modest fractions of 24.03 seconds for the quarter, 49.25 for the half-mile and 1:13.30 for six furlongs.

Though Sounds Like a Plan was still clear turning for home, Castellano got Dream On off the rail and set sail for the leader, getting by him in deep stretch.

Dream On covered the mile in 1:38.06 over a turf course labeled good following rain that prompted New York Racing Association officials to transfer Saturday’s other three scheduled turf races to the dirt. Dream On returned $10 as the fourth choice.

“I learned a lot about the horse when I rode him at Gulfstream [winning a Jan. 11 allowance race],” Castellano told NYRA publicity. “It seemed to me he liked to cover up a little bit and make one run. That’s exactly what I did today. … He finished really well today.”

Casse said he would look to keep Dream On at one mile for now and mentioned the $400,000 Penn Mile on May 30 at Penn National.