Before anything cracks, Smooth Dream is done for the year
by Debbie Little
Smooth Dream’s nearly perfect season has hit a snag. Trainer Noel Daley told HRU on Tuesday (Sept. 2) that the horse’s 2025 season was over.
“I just MRIed him today, because he trained well, but he didn’t come out of it well,” Daley said. “My vet [Steve Dey III] x-rayed him. He didn’t like the look of a sesamoid, but we couldn’t really tell anything. I already had him paid up to race [at The Meadowlands], so I entered him, but we just did the MRI this afternoon, and it hasn’t cracked, but it looks like it wants to, so better just to stop now. So, he’s done for the year.”
Smooth Dream, nine-for-10 on the season, was scheduled to compete in tonight’s (Sept. 5) $150,000 New Jersey Classic final for 3-year-old male pacers at The Meadowlands. He scratched out of last week’s New Jersey Classic prep race following a fourth-place finish from a brutal first-over trip in the Carl Milstein Memorial on Aug. 9 at Northfield Park.
“When I raced him at Northfield, I took him out there and the track was super hard, I guess it always is there,” Daley said. “He was fine in the race, and [driver Andy McCarthy] didn’t complain about him at all, but I just noticed when I was walking him later on, he was walking a little gingerly, and I actually thought it was his foot. But then I brought him home, and he was all right.
“Then we trained him, and he trained well, but then he didn’t come out of it well after that. And that’s when Steve had a look at him, and he didn’t like the look of the sesamoid, but he couldn’t really tell on his x-rays. We got him an MRI, and he just sort of said the same thing, he said, ‘It’s not cracked, but it looks like it wants to.’ So, it was a no brainer that we should just put him away for the year. So, the fact that it hasn’t cracked or broken away, makes it a lot easier to bring him back then if you were trying to repair it later on.”
In addition to being Daley’s vet, Dey is also a good friend.
“He’s been my vet forever,” Daley said. “We sent the horse down there to Mid Atlantic because they have the MRI machine there. To be honest with you, I’ve never MRIed one before, but Steve suggested we send him down there just to confirm.
Daley officially scratched Smooth Dream on Wednesday morning (Sept. 5) out of the New Jersey Classic final.
“If you crack those sesamoids, it can cause a problem then with the suspensory and the fact that it hasn’t cracked, but it wants to, it’s better to stop with him now than to risk him,” Daley said. “So, you know, he’ll come back next year; he’s a gelding. You know, it does suck [to have to scratch out of the NJ Classic final], because this was another race where he probably would have been the favorite, but he’s made a quarter of a million, so, [the owners are] all realistic about it. We’ll just bring him back next year.”
The 3-year-old gelded son by Cattlewash—Dreamlands Latte is owned by Bay Pond Racing Stable (Joe and Joann Thomson), CTC Stable (Allen Kaplan), and KDP Stable LLC (Kal Liebowitz). The Thomsons’ Winbak Farm bred Smooth Dream.
WhenHRU spoke with Daley and co-owner Kaplan back in June, Smooth Dream was going for his seventh straight victory at The Meadowlands, where he currently is a perfect eight-for-eight.
On Wednesday, Daley said they did an x-ray of Smooth Dream’s hind ankle which has a tiny chip, but it was determined that surgery is not needed at this time.
According to Daley, the front, right sesamoid issue is not located in the best spot.
“Just right where it is behind the ankle, if that does come away and it rips the suspensory, that’s very hard to repair and come back from,” he said. “The fact that that hasn’t happened, makes it a lot easier. So, he can just have his time off, and he’s done a good job, so, I look forward to bringing him back as a 4-year-old.
“He showed when he went out there to Northfield that he could go with them. He did most of the work, and he was [fourth] to those horses there [Prince Hal Hanover, Twisted Destiny, and Swingtown].
“He only got to race a few times at 2, because he had a chip they had to take out, so, you know, he hasn’t been over raced. And he’s just going to make 10 starts this year.”
Having had so few starts at 2, the connections of Smooth Dream weren’t quite sure what they had so they didn’t stake him to much as a 3-year-old, figuring if he was good enough, they could supplement to something.
They considered supplementing to the Meadowlands Pace, but chose instead to wait to see how the horse was and possibly go into the Little Brown Jug.
“I just thought he’d get around there well, and that was the upcoming race that we would have, if he’d been well,” Daley said of the plan to race in the Jug. “So now that’s out of the equation… but he’s going to come back [next year] nice and healthy, and, you know, having a good break there. It can be a long year for some of these 3-year-olds and they’ve got to race right through the end of it, so whether they come back or not, you never know. But, as I said, he’s never put in a bad one for us.”
