CHICAGO -- There are two overnight stakes races on Saturday's 10-race program at Arlington Park, and while the Reluctant Guest - for older females at a mile on turf - featured a nice matchup between Quiet Royal and Chic Dancer, it takes a backseat to the Double Delta.
The Double Delta, also at a mile on turf, but restricted to 3-year-old fillies, marks the first start at Arlington for Dreaming of Anna since her career debut here last May 19. Dreaming of Anna won that dirt sprint by four lengths in a fast time, went on to set a 5 1/2-furlong turf-course record at Colonial Downs, defeated males in the Summer Stakes over a mile on the Woodbine grass course, and capped her year with a victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, thus earning championship honors as the nation's top 2-year-old female.
But that was then, and this is now.
Now, Dreaming of Anna's connections would merely like to win a race with her. Dreaming of Anna has three starts this year and lost all of them, finishing sixth last out in the Kentucky Oaks after two losses - one in a dirt sprint, the other in a turf route - at the Gulfstream Park meet.
"I'd just kind of want to get everybody back in the winner's circle, and then we'll see where we're at with her," said trainer Wayne Catalano.
Catalano still has faith in Dreaming of Anna. He excuses both her Gulfstream losses, and feels that Dreaming of Anna, a Frank Calabrese homebred, was just coming back into her own when she caught a muddy track she might not have cared for in the May 4 Oaks.
"You'd like everything to go perfect," Catalano said. "If I could step back and do it all over again, I'd place her where she couldn't lose."
And this time, maybe he has. Dreaming of Anna came out of the Oaks "awesome," according to Catalano, and has breezed very well on Arlington's Polytrack. She has nine rivals in the Double Delta, but is simply a better horse than any of them, and if jockey Rene Douglas wants a target for the filly, there are a couple potential pacesetters - Devil House and Mongoose Gold - for Dreaming of Anna to track.
Pletcher sends classy filly
Todd Pletcher is loaded in many divisions, perhaps none more so than with female turf horses, and that's surely one reason Quiet Royal has shown up at Arlington for the $45,000 Reluctant Guest.
Quiet Royal won a French Group 3 stakes last year before being imported to the U.S. She finished third in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Keeneland in her first North American start, but has lost in five subsequent starts. In her most recent race, on April 19 in a Keeneland allowance, Quiet Royal finished evenly for third behind Danzon, who returned to run well in the Crown Royal American Turf, and You Dancing Devil, who won an Arlington turf allowance last week.
In the Reluctant Guest she must deal with Chic Dancer, a winner in 7 of her 12 starts on Arlington's turf course. Chic Dancer had a troubled trip when she second to Round Heels in a May 18 allowance race here, and trainer Christine Janks believes Chic Dancer, winner of the Grade 3 Modesty last summer, can improve with her 2007 debut behind her.
"I think she kind of needed that race a little bit last time," Janks said. "I look for her to be really tough."