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(08/22/04) Dinner Date dances
to 3-length victory dropping back to 6F
Dropped back to six furlongs and reunited with jockey Javier
Castellano, Joseph and Alfred Nastasi's and Donato Lanni's three-year-old
filly, DINNER DATE, appeared to be right at home in Saratoga's
seventh race on Sunday, a $43,000 restricted N1X allowance for
fillies and mares, three-year-olds and up, winning by three
lengths. The bay daughter of New York stallion Take Me Out had
won her second start by 3 3/4 lengths going six furlongs at
Belmont on June 9, but then was tried at longer distances and
on turf, with her best performance being a fourth-place Belmont
effort going seven furlongs. Trainer Robert Ribaudo named jockey
Javier Castellano -- who had been on board for her maiden victory
-- to ride the filly for the fourth time, and she went off as
the 7.90-to-1 third choice among seven starters, bobbling at
the start and breaking dead last from the inside post position.
Despite the bad start, Dinner Date raced close behind the two
top choices, even-money favorite Funny Honey and 1.60-to-1 Say
Hey Willie, through a 22.30 opening quarter and -- although
checked on the turn -- was at the throatlatch of pacesetter
Funny Honey following a 45.91 half-mile while rallying between
rivals. She gained command at the head of the stretch racing
about three wide from the rail and pulled away authoritatively
thereafter, setting a five-eighths fraction of 58.02 and reaching
the wire in 1:11.32, as Say Hey Willie continued on to place
second. For jockey Castellano, under whom Dinner Date has earned
almost all of her career purse money (her fourth-placed effort
at seven furlongs also was under Castellano), it was the second
of three winning rides aboard fillies on Saratoga's Sunday card.
The victory increased Dinner Date's earnings by $25,800 to $54,616
while improving the record of the New York-bred filly, whose
latest previous outing had been in Saratoga's $250,000 New York
Stallion Statue of Liberty of Stakes 17 days earlier, to two
wins in five starts. Campaigned by Joseph and Alfred Nastasi
of Saratoga Springs in partnership with Donato Lanni, who had
purchased her as agent for $55,000 at Keeneland's 2002 September
yearling sale in Lexington, Kentucky, Dinner Date also qualified
her breeder, Dr. Jonathan Davis' Milfer Farm, Inc. in Unadilla,
for a $5,160 breeder award. She had sold as a weanling for $18,500
at Keeneland's 2001 November breeding stock sale.
In addition to being the breeder of Dinner Date, Milfer Farm
also stands her syndicated sire, multiple graded winner Take
Me Out (Cure the Blues - White Feather, by Tom Rolfe), whose
connections qualified for a $1,806 stallion award. Dinner Date
is among 38 winners -- including four stakes winners -- of 63
races in 2004 sired by Take Me Out, whose 2004 progeny earnings
are approaching $1.4-million and whose lifetime offspring earnings
have just gone over $10.1-million. She is from the first New
York-conceived crop of Take Me Out, a son of record-setting
New York sire Cure the Blues, who also stood at Milfer Farm.
Dinner Date is the fourth offspring and fourth winner produced
from New York-bred turf stakes winner Lady Eton, who is by Artichoke
(by Jacinto) and was purchased by Milfer Farm for $13,000 at
Keeneland's 1997 November sale when her first foal was a yearling.
Dinner Date's full brother, New York-bred John Calvin, won three
route races as a three-year-old in 2003, and her two older half-brothers
have both won sprints. Dinner Date was raised at Thomas J. Gallo
III's Blue Stone Farm in Cambridge, where one of the fillies
that she played with in the same paddock was the front-running
favorite in Sunday's seventh race, Funny Honey. A Hypo-Mating
check of Dinner Date's pedigree reveals that she is inbred 4
x 5 to Bold Ruler and that sire Take Me Out is inbred 3 x 4
to Hail to Reason. Dinner Date's racing style and her dosage
profile of 3-3-7-0-3 suggests that she might eventually stretch
out successfully beyond six furlongs. Brisnet Chart |
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(06/9/04)
Dinner Date arrives on time at Belmont Park
The Robert Ribaudo trained DINNER DATE didn't keep her owners,
Joseph Nastasi, Alfred Nastasi and Donato Lanni, waiting too
long to show up in the Belmont Park winner's circle, scoring
her maiden victory in her second attempt. The 10-horse field
of state-bred maiden fillies and mares, three year-olds and
upward, went to the post over the main track at Belmont Park.
The race was run at six-furlongs and Dinner Date had the services
of journeyman jockey Javier Castellano.
Rodeo Sass went to the front followed by Hurricane Erica and
Maidez as Dinner Date settled in fourth as the field reached
the quarter-pole in 22 seconds flat. Castellano moved Dinner
Date along the rail into second position before moving to the
outside of Rodeo Sass at the half-mile pole and once straightened
for home exploded to the front on his way to a 3-3/4-length
victory. Maidez closed for second-money and Rodeo Sass held
for third. Final time was 1:11.1 seconds.
Bred by Dr. Jon Davis' Milfer Farm, who qualified for a $4,920
breeder's award, Dinner Date is by Take Me Out, out of stakes
winner Lady Eton, by Artichoke. A son of Cure the Blues, who,
also, stood at Milfer Farm, in Unadilla, New York, Take Me Out,
is owned by a syndicate who qualifies for a $1,722 stallion
owner's award. A check of the Hypo-Mating feature on the homepage
of the nybreds.com website reveals that Dinner Date crosses
5X4 to sire of sires Bold Ruler. Take Me Out's 2004 progeny
earnings ($880,629) places him 5th on the active New York-based
stallion standings, with current stakes winners including Put
Me In, Ihaveadate, Prom Date and Take Me Up.
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