There are a range of emotions connections can experience while watching their horse in the stretch drive of a race, and All in Sync managed to elicit nearly all of them in the late stages of the $70,000 Dade Park Dash Overnight Stakes at Ellis Park on July 10.
After snatching the lead at top of the lane only to be caught, and briefly overtaken, by graded stakes winner Call Me Midnight, All in Sync delivered a gritty counterpunch when he re-rallied in the final jump to get his head down at the wire in the Dade Park Dash, giving Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen a sweep of the stakes on the opening weekend of the Henderson track’s centennial meet.
Like the $60,000 Pea Patch Overnight Stakes on Saturday, the 5 1/2-furlong Dade Park Dash was contested over the main track after all races were moved off the turf Sunday following heavy rain the day before. And just as the Asmussen barn prevailed 24 hours earlier with Speedometer, Ed and Susie Orr’s All in Sync would also not be denied with black-type on the line as the 3-year-old son of Maclean’s Music earned his first stakes win in eight career starts.
“I’ve worked with him since he was a 2-year-old since he came out of the OBS sale and…he’s a big boy. He kind of gets cheeky and playful but he’s got a great mentality, he’s got a great personality,” Marissa Short, assistant to Asmussen, said of All in Sync. “He’s a classy horse. He’s a feel-good horse but he’s a classy horse. He’s got a great head on him.”
When the Dade Park Dash was moved to the main track, some key indicators strongly suggested All in Sync was in an ideal position to end a three-race losing skid. Each of the dark bay colt’s prior two victories had come at sprint distances on the dirt, including an allowance optional claiming victory going six-furlongs at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 11, and with only three other rivals to contend with on Sunday, jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. knew he only needed to stay out of his mount’s way in order to ensure they got the necessary set up.
Sent off as the 1-2 betting favorite, All in Sync indeed had a clear trip, rating a close up fourth as Emperorofthedark cut early fractions of :22.84 and :45.40 with Sheltowee’s Ball rating second. With about a quarter mile to go, Hernandez let All in Sync start rolling to the outside and the pair overtook the pacesetter before being engaged by Call Me Midnight, who battled on along the fence and momentarily had a nose in front in the final sixteenth.
“Our biggest thing was just give him a good, clean trip,” Hernandez said. “It looked on paper like it was between him and (Call Me Midnight). All I had to do is be a good passenger and let him do his thing. When he put his head in front turning for home, he was pretty resilient in holding that horse off. When Call Me Midnight came to him, he was in for a fight and he knew what he was up to. He ran a big race.”
All in Sync covered the distance in 1:03.43 over a track rated fast as he collected his third career victory while improving his earnings to $220,588. Call Me Midnight, winner of the Lecomte Stakes (G3) in January, was 3 1/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Sheltowee’s Ball as Emperorofthedark faded to fourth. B D Valeski and Circle Back Jack both scratched.
Purchased by the Orrs for $310,000 out of the 2021 OBS April Two-Year-Olds in Training sale, All in Sync was bred in Kentucky by Philip Steinberg and is out of the Girolamo mare System Time.
Ellis Park Press Release
Photo: All In Sync gamely snagging Ellis Park’s Dade Park Dash (Coady Photography)
