Laki's DeFrancis Dash Win Puts Dilodovico on Television
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Photo: Skip Dickstein
Laki (outside) wins the Frank J. De Francis Memorial at Pimlico Race Course
Damon Dilodovico was certain Preakness Stakes Day would be a hectic afternoon for him.
Through his job with ISC TV, which provides audio and visual services for Pimlico Race Course and the Maryland Jockey Club, it was destined to be a nonstop work shift in helping with the production of a simulcast show featuring 12 stakes.
But little did he know he would also have to find time to be the star of one of those races.
When Hillside Equestrian Meadows' Laki won the $200,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes (G3), it moved Dilodovico from behind the cameras to in front of them as he also trains the winner of the Oct. 3 sprint stakes at Pimlico.
"It was unbelievably exciting. Everybody was hollering," Dilodovico said. "It was like a May Preakness."
For Dilodovico, who has been training since 1991, it was his first graded stakes win in a training career that has spanned roughly 3,949 starts and 732 wins.
"This means the world to me," he said.
The DeFrancis Dash was the crowning achievement of a five-season campaign with the 7-year-old gelding, who started in 2016 on a rather ignominious note when the Maryland-bred son of Cuba finished 10th and last in a maiden claiming race at Laurel Park as a 41-1 outsider.
He won his next start by five lengths to begin a rise that has lifted him to a 10-6-5 record in 28 starts for earnings of $683,662.
"Whenever we want to give him time, it's no problem (with the owner)," Dilodovico said. "No matter how long it is, he takes care of them and brings them back to us in good shape, which makes it a lot easier."
Laki, bred by Tom Michaels and Lorna Baker out of the Swear by Dixie mare Truthful Dutch, came into the De Francis Dash out of a runner-up finish in the Polynesian Stakes.
On Sept. 5 at Laurel, Robert Bone's Eastern Bay defeated Laki by 1 1/4 lengths in the Polynesian, but in Saturday's six-furlong stakes, Laki narrowly turned the tables on him in a thriller of a finish.
Krsto Skye, a 17-1 longshot, set the early fractions of :22.96 and :45.03 while running on a clear lead, but in the final furlong he was passed by the trio of Nitrous, Laki, and Eastern Bay. In the final yards, Nitrous held a slim lead, but in a bob of three noses at the wire, it was Laki and jockey Horacio Karamanos who got the nod from between horses. Eastern Bay, a Claudio Gonzalez-trained E Dubai gelding who was widest, was a nose back in second and Nitrous was another nose behind him in third.
Landeskog, the 4-5 favorite, pressed the early pace from second but wilted in the stretch and finished last in the field of six.
Laki ($16.40), the lone winner from his dam's three foals to race, was timed in 1:09.70 on a fast track.