Hallowed Dreams Is Poised to Streak Into Record Book

The more well-known graduates of Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La., will have to make room. John Henry won his first stakes race there in 1977 and Eddie Delahoussaye (1968) and Kent Desormeaux (1986) rode their first winners there, but more recently the tiny track 135 miles west of New Orleans has been the home of Hallowed Dreams.

Hallowed who? She’s the undefeated 3-year-old filly who’ll be sent by van to Louisiana Downs Saturday to try for her 16th consecutive victory, which would match a feat achieved by Citation, running in 1948 and 1950, and duplicated by Cigar in 1994-96.

Citation and Cigar won horse-of-the-year titles, but it’s unlikely that Hallowed Dreams, a huge filly that stands taller and weighs more than either of them, will get many Eclipse votes as long as her victories come in the boondocks of Louisiana. Of Hallowed Dreams’ 15 in a row, six victories have come at Evangeline Downs, five at Louisiana Downs, one at Delta Downs and three at the Fair Grounds, the New Orleans oval that is the closest the state has to a major track.

“It takes a good horse to win 15 races in a row, no matter what,” said Sylvester Carmouche Jr., who will be aboard Hallowed Dreams for the 14th time Saturday in the $40,000 Dixie Miss Stakes.

A plateful of the best jambalaya wouldn’t lure Lloyd Romero, Hallowed Dreams’ 65-year-old trainer, into comparing his filly with Citation and Cigar.

“The records they set don’t mean anything to me,” Romero said. “They were great horses, but I have a great horse. If [16 in a row] comes, it comes. If not, we’ll line her up to run another day.”

Citation and Cigar ran most of their races over a greater distance. Hallowed Dreams’ game is sprinting, and in all of her races, only one horse has been able to get ahead. At the Fair Grounds on Dec. 11, Shattered Heart led a six-furlong race for half a mile, but the torrid :44 2/5 pace cooked him to a frazzle. He finished fifth as Hallowed Dreams won by more than seven lengths.

That was one of only two starts in which Hallowed Dreams didn’t go off the favorite. In her third start, against males in the Shine Young Futurity at Evangeline a year ago, Hallowed Dreams was 23-10 as she won by eight lengths.

Hallowed Dreams has resurrected the career of Carmouche, a 41-year-old jockey who had won only five stakes in his career before winning 11 with the filly. On a January night at Delta Downs in 1990, in one of the most original scams in racing lore, Carmouche finished first in a one-mile race even though his mount traveled less than a quarter of a mile.

In heavy fog, the horses started from a chute that would take the field through the stretch a first time. Carmouche pulled up his horse, Landing Officer, shortly after the break, and then they lurked near the head of the homestretch, waiting for the field to circle the track. Carmouche turned the rested Landing Officer loose, and they won by a ridiculous 24 lengths. This was a horse that had won three of 49 starts going into the race. After reviewing a tape of the race, the stewards disqualified the horse; Louisiana racing authorities later suspended Carmouche for 10 years.

In 1998, Carmouche was reinstated. He stayed fit by riding quarter horses along with thoroughbreds at Cajun Downs, an unrecognized bush track.

“What I did was a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Carmouche said this week. “I’m glad this filly has given me a reason to talk about the good things.”

Last summer, Carmouche came by the mount on Hallowed Dreams by accident.

After Carl Woodley helped break her maiden at Evangeline, Hallowed Dreams suffered a hoof injury when she stepped on a nail at the barn.

“He didn’t want to ride her the next time,” Romero said. “He thought she was a cripple.”

With Billy Patin aboard, Hallowed Dreams won the Futurity Trial against colts. But Patin was in serious trouble, allegedly having used an electrical prod the day Valhol won the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. By the time of Hallowed Dreams’ third start, Patin’s riding license had been pulled. Enter Sylvester Carmouche, who won the Futurity at Evangeline with the filly and has been with her ever since.

Hallowed Dreams, who stands well over 16 hands (64 inches) and weighs about 1,150 pounds, is a Louisiana-bred daughter of Malagra, a sire that stands for a $2,000 stud fee, and Pacific’s Dream, a Brother Machree mare.

Romero, whose 50-50 partner in Hallowed Dreams is Johnny Gaspard, bought the filly from her breeder, Mike Kennington, for $15,000 when she was four months old.

Lloyd Romero, a former state trooper, suffers from Parkinson’s disease, one of the reasons Hallowed Dreams isn’t expected to leave Louisiana. Romero became a full-time trainer in 1977, after surviving an accident in which a drunk driver crashed head-on into his patrol car.

A few years before, Romero and son Gerald trained Rocket’s Magic, a quarter horse ridden by another son, jockey Randy Romero, to a third-place finish in the All-American Futurity in New Mexico. The 1978 film “Casey’s Shadow” was loosely based on the Rocket’s Magic story, with the late Walter Matthau playing the Lloyd Romero character. It may be time for another casting call. Hallowed Dreams seems like an even better story.

Horse Racing Notes

Nationalore, who may have earned more money than any maiden that ever raced, was euthanized at Hollywood Park Wednesday after clipping heels with another horse and going down on the first turn of the sixth race. The 5-year-old gelding’s jockey, Tyler Baze, suffered a dislocated finger on his left hand. Nationalore, who was bred, owned and trained by Cho Myung Kwon, was winless in 26 starts, butearned $318,227 with seven second-place finishes and seven thirds. He earned $120,000 of that total for finishing third, behind Favorite Trick and Dawson’s Legacy, in the 1997 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Hollywood Park. Five weeks later, he was third again, behind Real Quiet and Artax, in the Hollywood Futurity. Nationalore ran ninth in the 1998 Kentucky Derby, won by Real Quiet.