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For this 14th-year horse, one more run

4 min read
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Most soon-to-be-retirees ease into the end of their working lives.

Not Dream Out Loud N – he’s not horsing around.

As he rambles down the stretch run of an amazing harness racing career, 14-year-old pacer Dream Out Loud N is headed to mandatory retirement with a whole lot of fight left in him and success behind him.

Two weeks ago, he was moved into a higher classification as he was written out of the $7,000 claiming race and placed in the $10,000 claiming race because he was just too successful in the lower conditions.

Dream Out Loud N didn’t allow that to stop him or his retirement roll. He won in the higher class. He followed that a week ago by returning to the $7,000 claiming race and won again – his fifth consecutive victory. The old-timer has 16 wins in 2021.

This is Dream Out Loud N’s final season because Standardbreds are required to retire after their 14-year-old season.

Most horses never make it to their 14-year-old season, let alone put together one of their greatest seasons of a career.

Dream Out Loud N has earned $1,096,614 in his career and did it without one of his career wins coming in a stakes race.

“He’s one of the toughest horses I ever drove,” said Hall of Fame driver Dave Palone. “He’s fighting for you every step of a race. He’s been claimed and passed around quite a bit the past two years.

“He just loves to do his job, regardless of conditions, weather and post position. No matter that it’s near the end, he’s out there slugging it out every time.”

Dream Out Loud N is in the top 10 in the nation in wins among all horses of any age. He is the only 14-year-old in the top 50 in wins. Among pacers, age 4 and up, he is in the top three.

Dream Out Loud N has been returned to the $10,000 claimers for his race this afternoon at The Meadows. He won at that level two weeks ago in 1:53.4. He will pace from post position one in the 10th race.

Palone objected to Dream Out Loud N being written out of the $7,000 claiming race two weeks ago, saying the horse deserved more respect being that it was his last six weeks of racing.

“This is a feel-good story of a special horse,” Palone said. “You would think he deserves a little respect at this point.”

It is the race secretary’s job to place horses of similar talent into the same race. In respect to management’s view, the more competitive a race is, the more interest it will draw among bettors.

Claiming races are classified by the horse’s value. Horses are entered for a price tag, such as $10,000. That means that the owner of each horse in the field thinks that’s what their horse is worth on the open market, so theoretically all horses in the race should be of similar talent. Horses can be “claimed,” or purchased from the race by any other licensed horse owner for that price.

Dream Out Loud N spent most of the season in the $10,000 class. The higher the price tag, the more purse money the horse races for.

In late October, the owners decided there was less risk in losing him to another owner via a claim because of his impending retirement, thus dropping him into the$7,000 race.

Dream Out Loud N was dominant, winning three straight races, the last of which by more than six lengths. The horse was a heavy favorite all three times.

The Meadows long-time race secretary, Tom Leasure, made the decision to add a condition to the $7,000 claiming race last weekend – barring horses who had won two races out of their last five races from entering. That forced the horse back up to $10,000.

Dream Out Loud N won that race with a strong performance down the stretch.

“He was like a freight train coming down the lane,” said Marcus Marashian, Dream Out Loud N’s trainer. “He was like a machine. He has something special – a desire to keep competing and winning. He’s an overnight warrior.”

Dream Out Loud N has 292 career starts, 66 wins, 60 seconds and 43 thirds, and career earnings of more than $1,096,614. His fastest win was 1:48.4 at Harrah’s Philadelphia in 2014.

In addition to his 16 wins in 34 starts, he has eight seconds, one third and earnings of $67,040. His fastest winning time this year is 1:52.

Said George Napolitano, Jr., top driver at Mohegan Sun Pocono, Wilkes-Barre: “He’s a good old boy. He went some good miles for me in his career. I had a lot of fun with him. He’s just a classy old guy you could always count on.”

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