PERFECT DREAM -- A HORSE FOR ALL SEASONS
by Jackie Cowan
Perfect Dream (click to enlarge)
Perfect Dream ('91, Kentucky Lobell/Velvet Dream) contested the Grade A & B Saddle at Skibbereen Show in July, and on winning it, owner, John Shanahan decided to retire his great campaigner on this high note. The thirteen-year-old had only a couple of races this season, but still appeared to maintain his appetite for the fray.
Perfect Dream came to West Cork in August, 1998, and achieved an open saddle win under Denis Cremin. Over the following three years, Perfect Dream racked up a hatful of awards and titles. In 1999, he was awarded ITHRF Turf/Track Horse Of The Year, based on the number of seasonal wins, and he successfully defended that title in 2000, and one of his successes that term, with Ciaran Brickley in the plate, was the All-Ireland Turf Saddle Championship.
Although Perfect Dream garnered wins in free-for-alls, handicaps and ladies' sulky events, saddle racing appeared to be his special forte. Raymond Shanahan drove him in almost all his races, while his jockeys have included, as well as Cremin and Brickley, Michael Williamson, John Sheehy, Noreen McSweeney and Celine O'Brien.
In the curtailed road season of 2000 (caused by the FMD crisis), Perfect Dream, with John Sheehy up, won the All-Ireland Road Championship at Old Chapel in February. A remarkable achievement, given that he was reigning turf saddle champion at the time. And he went on to win the first saddle classic of the summer season, The Laddie From Leap at Central Track.
But with his racing days finally over, Perfect Dream, described by connections as having a lovely temperament and easily handled by a person of any age, does not need wait to see what the merits of his offspring will be. One of these, Castleross Flyer (out of Hi-Lo's Mathilda) won a handful of races on the road, in a light campaign. This code may be her metier, as in a couple of harness outings, she has not, as yet, shown the same talent. But Hillside Dream (out of Adora's Roberta), looks as if he will be one of the, undoubtedly many, who will fly the flag for his sire. Winner of a couple of three-year-old events, Hillside Dream was just pipped on the line by Ayr Strike, in the final of the Three-Year-Old Classic at Caheragh in August. Later sidelined, he could not contest the Sire Stakes at Central Track. In a three-horse two-year-old race at Central Track late in September, the winner and runner-up were both by Perfect Dream, and they were followed home by a Cam Security.
Given Perfect Dream's versatility in all disciplines, it should be no surprise if he becomes one of the most sought after and successful sires in an area where all-rounders are the norm.