HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Kathleen O’Connell is a trainer in transition at the moment
O’Connell has spent the majority of her time since she secured a fourth Tampa Bay Downs training title earlier this month going through the tedious process of shipping and bedding down the large contingent she plans to race this summer at Monmouth Park. She also has 22 horses stabled at Gulfstream Park, including Dream Concert who figures to go postward one of the choices in Sunday’s $70,000 overnight handicap for fillies and mares, which will be decided at a mile on the main track.
“We had a great meet at Tampa, I’m very happy for that, but we have had some personal issues in the barn while trying to ship those horses up north so it’s been a hectic time,” O’Connell said. “We finally have everything out of Tampa now. This is the smallest group of horses I’ve ever had at Gulfstream during the summer, and I might wind up having to send some of them up north too if the races here keep not going.”
Dream Concert has been a hard-knocking staple in the O’Connell stable. She is multiple stakes-placed with earnings of $234,000 from 22 career starts, although she remains winless since October 2023, a somewhat frustrating series of a dozen starts during which the daughter of Jess’s Dream has finished second or third on 10 occasions.
“She’s been a victim of races that don’t unfold in her favor, an unlucky trip here and there, or of catching some really solid horses along the way,” O’Connell said when asked about Dream Concert’s win drought.
The most noteworthy of those “solid horses” O’Connell was referring to is Positano Sunset, who beat Dream Concert by a length going seven furlongs in an overnight handicap on March 9 at Tampa Bay Downs. Positano Sunset came back to flatter the effort and then some when upsetting the Grade 1 Madison four weeks later at Keeneland. Dream Concert received a career best 90 Beyer Speed Figure in defeat at Tampa that day.
“I’m not crazy being down on the inside [post 2] on Sunday, but she always tries and I’m very comfortable with her going a one-turn mile,” O’Connell said.
Dream Concert will take on six rivals, topped by the Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained duo of morning-line favorite Claret Beret and Princess Indy. Both horses are new additions to the Joseph barn after being privately purchased after their last starts by Miller Racing LLC.
Claret Beret has come in from Oaklawn Park, where she won an entry-level allowance race going 1 1/16 miles to kick off her 2025 campaign on Feb. 1. She has made just one subsequent start, finishing an even-running fourth while jumping up to a second-level allowance and optional-claiming race five weeks later.
Princess Indy has been idle since finishing second to the multiple stakes winner Miss New York in the Twixt Stakes going a mile on Sept. 22 at Laurel Park. Like Claret Beret, she has prepared for her return with a steady series of works at Palm Meadows.
Broderie, a lower-level optional-claiming and allowance winner in her last start, rounds out a field that also includes outsiders Sweet Laura, Nerazurri, and Gallop d’Hermes.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.