Dale’s Deal rallied three wide on the turn, overtook two foes with a determined stretch run, and earned a neck win in the third race on Saturday at Fairmount Park to become the first career winner for freshman sire Animo de Valeroso.

Trained by Eddie Essenpreis for owner Shellye Essenpreis, Dale’s Deal won the 5 1/2-furlong race in 1:08 on a track rated as fast. The two-year-old gelding is one of seven winners from nine starters out of the winning Green Dancer mare Cum Laude Robin.

Animo de Valeroso, an unraced half brother to multiple graded stakes winner and influential sire Distorted Humor and Grade 2-placed multiple stakes winner Dancing Gulch, stood the 2008 breeding season for $1,000 at Fairberry Farm in Waterloo, Illinois. Out of Grade 2 winner Danzig’s Beauty, by Danzig, Animo de Valeroso has 27 two-year-olds in his first crop.

Charles Nuckols Jr. and sons bred Animo de Valeroso in Kentucky.