4/30/13

PTK LLC’s Daydreamin Gracie swept by the pacesetter and stormed to an eight-length victory in the $50,000 Shine Again Stakes at Pimlico on Saturday, April 27.

Garry Cruise was at the reins for the first time for trainer Dane Kobiskie as the daughter of Domestic Dispute beat seven other Maryland-bred fillies and mares in the one and one sixteenth-mile test for non-winners of a stakes. Favorite Touch the Birds finished second, with Franstein third.

“They told me just exactly how to ride her,” said Cruise. “She’s a big, good-looking, honest filly. She’ll give you everything she’s got. Leave her alone and she’ll do her thing.She knows how to win and I just was the guy who was lucky enough to be on her today.”

The 34-year-old Cruise relocated to the Mid-Atlantic last fall after spending the previous seven years riding at Woodbine and Fort Erie in Ontario.

“I have always wanted to ride in this part of the country,” added Cruise. “The quality of jockeys is amazing. I grew up idolizing Maryland riders. Dane and I have been friends for 12 years. We used to gallop horses for Dallas Stewart and this was an opportunity to ride for my friend.”

Daydreamin Gracie, who has now won six of her last eight starts, completed the distance in 1:46.30 and paid $7 as the second choice.

Bred by Suzanne Moscarelli’s Country Roads Ltd., Daydreamin Gracie is out of the stakes-placed Piccolino mare Matti’s Pic, and was foaled in 2008, the year after her half-brother Evil Storm won the Maryland Million Classic. A Maryland-bred son of Storm Broker, Evil Storm earned $463,034, the majority after being claimed from his breeder in 2005 for $16,000.