‘Dream’ over for Banks and co. as Matchmaker winner sold

Harness racing’s latest dual hemisphere pacing queen, Amazing Dream N (Bettor’s Delight), was a brilliant winner of the $328,200 Blue Chip Matchmaker Series final on Monday night at Yonkers Raceway where she captured her first Grade 1 race on American soil.

The Linda Toscano trained seven-year-old mare drew favourably in pole position for the final of the rich female pacing series.

With Yannick Gingras aboard, the former New Zealand 3YO Filly and 4YO Mare of the Year was able to capitalize with the pair going wire-to-wire in a dominant front running display.

Her connections Gordon Banks, Marc Hanover, Richard Gutnick, Thomas Petone and Jospeh Lozito Jr have had considerable fun racing the daughter of Bettor’s Delight since putting together a big money offer back in early 2021.

Banks, who enjoyed the victory from his Florida home, broke the news to Harnesslink that, somewhat serendipitously, it would be the last time the star pacing mare would race in the names of the ownership group, confirming a sizeable offer had been accepted to acquire Amazing Dream N this morning.

“We are really happy for the new owner, and it was a little bit bittersweet, but we don’t really like to breed the really top-line mares we race,” said Banks.

“We sold our share in Lady Chaos and part of our share in Rocklimation and even old the sales topping trotting 3YO filly at Harrisburg last year for $500,000. We would rather have racehorses and buy yearlings and generally not breed these types of horses. It’s a business, you have to do what you think is right, and I’m just not a big believer myself in breeding from these mares after having had a lot of success racing them,” he said.

The new owner was not able to be reached for comment late this evening. Still, Harnesslink can confirm Amazing Dream N has been purchased for her broodmare potential and will be joining an elite band of mares at the conclusion of the 2023 racing season, where she will remain in the care of Linda Toscano.

Toscano has done a sensational job with Amazing Dream N who while better known for her tenacity racing down under more so than sheer speed, has since realised her potential racing under North American conditions.

“We weren’t sure how she would race over here having a strong class of Aged Mares and with the speed racing being something she wasn’t used to. Linda Toscano did a great job and acclimated her to the racing, which took some time. Yannick got on with her fantastically and now she is probably as good as she has been in North America,” said Banks.

“I think all of us thought by far she was the best in the series, but given the size of the track, a lot was going to be determined by post positions. Ironically this year, all the top contenders seemed to draw well every week. When we drew the pole, I really didn’t think there was much that could beat her if she was right.

“Having the week off between heats was planned from the beginning because she is always a horse who has generally been given a lot of spacing between her races, even back to when she was based in New Zealand and then Australia. Linda has a great routine with her now where she can train without taking a lot out of her, and had her cheery ripe for the final yesterday,” he said.

AMAZING DREAM N REPLAY

Amazing Dream N transfers to her new owner with 30 career victories, 11 of which are at Group One level, and stake earnings of $USD 1,484,586. Her total dollars won without conversion amount to just shy of $2 million in stakes with $1,915,082 earnt across her career spanning New Zealand, Australia, USA and Canada.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink