I Dream Again to wake up over middle distance

I DREAM AGAIN, last year’s Jamaica Derby and St Leger winner, appears to have finally exhausted his options in restricted overnight-allowance company and faces a manageable field in Saturday’s O & S Tack Room Trophy over one mile.

Since beating the filly Burning Hedge in the Jamaica Derby a little over a year ago, I DREAM AGAIN has won only once, a seven-furlong event on April 26, taking his tally to four victories from 17 starts. That success was followed by five unsuccessful attempts against horses yet to win an overnight allowance.

Oddly, four of those defeats came in sprint races, none farther than five and a half furlongs, including three starts over the straight course. It has been a puzzling four-year-old campaign for a dual two-turn classic winner who showed no inclination towards sprinting at age three.

Saturday’s O & S Tack Room Trophy marks a return to middle-distance racing for I DREAM AGAIN, whose June 28 outing from the mile chute ended with a fading third-place finish, eight lengths behind runner-up ALLEGIANCE, who was a similar margin adrift of runaway winner BOSS MAN.

I DREAM AGAIN subsequently turned the tables on ALLEGIANCE in back-to-back races, finishing second to stablemate MISS MONEYPENNY over five furlongs straight and imported COMMANDER Z over five and a half furlongs around the turn.

ALLEGIANCE’s unflattering form since finishing ahead of I DREAM AGAIN makes Anthony Nunes’ runner difficult to support, leaving United States-bred SHOOTING STAR as the most likely threat in the O & S Tack Room Trophy.

SHOOTING STAR will carry 114lb with claiming rider Tyrese Anderson aboard, six pounds less than the 120lb assigned to I DREAM AGAIN with Robert Halledeen. SHOOTING STAR won his most recent race over the same distance on the day I DREAM AGAIN defeated non-winners of four races in April, clocking 1:27.0 against $1.5-million claimers, one-fifth of a second slower.

The pair met in the June 28 restricted overnight-allowance event won by BOSS MAN, in which I DREAM AGAIN finished third. SHOOTING STAR was fourth, a quarter-length behind I DREAM AGAIN, but did considerably less early pace work than the four-year-old, who was spent after attempting to match the vastly improved BOSS MAN on the lead.

SHOOTING STAR followed up with a strong runner-up finish behind D HEAD CORNERSTONE a month later. I DREAM AGAIN, meanwhile, was confined to two sprint races in which he reversed placings with ALLEGIANCE, suggesting he should again have the measure of SHOOTING STAR.