LEXINGTON, Ky. – The defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles have opened the season 4-0. Big Dom, named for Eagles chief security officer Dom DiSandro, looks to open his career 2-0 in the Grade 1, $650,000 Breeders’ Futurity on Saturday at Keeneland.
Big Dom is owned by Greenwell Thoroughbreds and Robert Asaro. Greenwell principal Greg Tramontin met DiSandro, nicknamed Big Dom, last year. He subsequently named a horse after him – the McKinzie colt that trainer Tom Amoss had selected at the Keeneland September yearling sale, and who the team purchased after he failed to meet his reserve in the ring.
Big Dom is the least-experienced member of the Futurity field, which includes juveniles who are already graded stakes winners. Chief among those is Ted Noffey, dominant winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes. Off one of the highest Beyer Speed Figures of the year for a juvenile, the race runs through the heavy 4-5 morning-line favorite in an expected field of six starters. Ewing, unbeaten winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, will be scratched, trainer Mark Casse reported Friday. That leaves Ted Noffey and Spice Runner as the most-accomplished members of this group.
Still, Big Dom has faced some good company, both at the races and in the mornings. Amoss unveiled Big Dom on the Aug. 23 Travers Stakes undercard at Saratoga, a day when maiden races often attract quality stock. Big Dom’s race was no exception, as he lined up against Phipps homebred Dark Assault and Claiborne/Adele Dilschneider homebred Simulate, among others. Big Dom intently tracked pacesetter Dr. Kapur and wore him down to win by a neck.
That win is part of a strong year with 2-year-olds for Amoss. His string also includes It’s Our Time, a runaway 17 3/4-length debut winner at Saratoga; Sapling winner One More Freud; Grade 3-placed maiden winner Spa Prospector; and maiden special weight winners Celebrity Quest, Oscar’s Hope, and Revel Toast. Among other things, that gives Amoss options for testing young stock in the mornings.
“He prepared really well into the race,” Amoss said of Big Dom. “His work partner was It’s Our Time. So, I really felt like he would have a good showing. It was really challenging the last part – he dug in and showed great determination. I left there being very comfortable about his future.”
Amoss will be in New York this weekend to saddle It’s Our Time in the Grade 1 Champagne going a one-turn mile. Meanwhile, he’s also keen to stretch out Big Dom to 1 1/16 miles off his six-furlong debut win. The colt is from the second crop of McKinzie, whose first crop includes Grade 1-winning routers Baeza and Scottish Lassie. The colt is out of Half A. P., a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and champion Halfbridled.
“One thing that probably stood out the most [about his debut] was I left there really looking forward to running two turns,” Amoss said.
Todd Pletcher has been eager to get Ted Noffey – a son of Spendthrift Farm kingpin Into Mischief and named with a twist for farm manager Ned Toffey – around two turns as well, selecting this race over the Champagne. The colt defeated a well-regarded field in his debut, then rolled by 8 1/2 lengths in the historic Hopeful. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 98 – the second-highest for a 2-year-old this year, behind the 101 subsequent Grade 1 winner Brant posted in his debut in California.
“He has a lot of natural talent,” Pletcher said. “He acts as though he’s going to appreciate more distance, a little more laid back in his daily gallops, he’s a little more sort of on the lanky side.”
Ewing's scratch will remove the most likely pacesetter from this field. Inheriting the lead could be Ted Noffey, who has natural speed and was never far off in the Hopeful. Big Dom is also likely to be forwardly-placed.
“We’re not going to take away anything that comes easily,” Pletcher said.
Spice Runner is a big, still-maturing colt who trainer Steve Asmussen believes needs racing to improve, and indeed, he has moved forward through his four starts. Going a one-turn mile at Churchill Downs in the Grade 3 Iroquois, he showed his greenness when he wandered about after he felt the crop in the lane. Still, he was up by a head at the wire. Although he has showed speed in earlier efforts, having a target to run down seemed to focus him, and he should have at least one here.
Blackout Time won his second start by 9 3/4 lengths, going a 1 1/2-turn mile in a maiden at Ellis Park. Completing the field are Diciassette and Litmus Test, both stretching out. Diciassette, won the Proud Man in the slop at Gulfstream. Litmus Test was most recently fourth in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity to his Bob Baffert-tained stablemate Brant.
The Breeders’ Futurity awards its winner an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Oct. 31 at Del Mar, and also awards points toward the 2026 Kentucky Derby starting gate on the 10-5-3-2-1 scale. In the 10 most recent editions of the race, winners Classic Empire (2016), Essential Quality (2020), and Forte (2022) went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and earn divisional Eclipse Awards. Knicks Go (2018) was second in the 2018 Juvenile, won the 2020 BC Dirt Mile, and won the 2021 BC Classic in a Horse of the Year campaign.
Essential Quality is the most recent winner of this race to take a classic the following year, winning the 2021 Belmont Stakes and also earning a divisional title that year. Classic Empire and Forte were both classic-placed.
– additional reporting by Marcus Hersh
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