by Jeff Lowe
Dreaming of Anna, the champion two-year-old filly of 2006, has been retired after her sixth-place finish in the First Lady Stakes (G1) on October 3 at Keeneland Race Course.
Owner-breeder Frank Calabrese sent the four-year-old Rahy filly out of Justenuffheart, by Broad Brush, to Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky. Breeding plans have not been decided, trainer Wayne Catalano said on Tuesday morning at Keeneland.
Dreaming of Anna provided Catalano with his first Grade 1 win when she set all the pace in the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and spurted away to win by 1 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs, capping an undefeated season that also included a victory over males in the Summer Stakes (Can-G3) at Woodbine.
After garnering the Eclipse Award, Dreaming of Anna went on to win the 2007 Pucker Up Stakes (G3) at Arlington Park, Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs, and ’08 Hillsborough (G3) and Endeavour (G3) Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. She finished second to Bit of Whimsy in the 2007 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1) at Keeneland.
“It’s a nice feat to win those kind of races at two, three, and four,” Catalano said. “It’s what gets you up at four in the morning every day, to have the opportunity to train a horse like that. I feel a little sad today without her.”
Catalano also trains Dreaming of Anna’s full brother, Grade 2 winner Lewis Michael, for Calabrese. Lewis Michael, winner of the Pat O’Brien Handicap (G2) at Del Mar in his most recent start, is slated for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on October 25 at Oak Tree before he retires to stand the 2009 season at Three Chimneys.
Bred in Kentucky, Dreaming of Anna won ten of 17 career starts and earned $2,024,550.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer