Winter Dawn Impressive in Saratoga Debut

Coffeepot Stable’s promising juvenile filly Winter Dawn, who had been training at Arlington International Racecourse before shipping up to Saratoga for her debut, won an impressive maiden to open the Sunday card at The Spa.  The Wayne Catalano-trained daughter of Sky Mesa broke alertly, followed the speed and then overcame a tight trip between horses in the final drive to beat Eclipse Thoroughbred Partner’s Todd Pletcher-trained 4-5 favorite Feathered by a head under Shaun Bridgmohan.

“She showed her class from the beginning and did everything the right way,” said Fernando Canteria, Catalano’s assistant.  “Any horse can work fast going three furlongs, but she started doing it at four and five furlongs.  She kept working well and is a very smart filly.  I got nervous when she was between horses, but I’m really glad she won.

“I told Shaun to work her to get a feel for her the other day. He worked her and said, ‘Oh my God, I think we have something’ and I said, ‘I know’,” Canteria laughed.  “We were actually so close to not running her.  She may have needed another work and she actually had just worked two days ago on Aug. 1 - but we ran her and look at what she did.  When you go to Saratoga you take a horse who can run and she definitely can.”

With boss Catalano still in the hospital recovering from pneumonia, Canteria has called many of the shots in his absence, but it was a call from the boss that made his day.  “I was so surprised to see ‘Wayne’s cell phone’ popping up on my screen.  He was really happy with the race. He’s very high on this filly.” Out of the Rubiano mare Reboot, Winter Dawn was a $185,000 purchase last summer as Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga sale.