He came to Pompano Park with about 10 horses too many and saw stable star Power Park sidelined early on by injury, but Quebec trainer Jean Beaulieu won’t be leaving Florida empty-handed.

Beaulieu, 47, figures his 25-horse stable collected more than $100,000 in Florida this season, and could be in for another nice boost Monday in the $42,500 final of Pompano’s Trots & Slots Open, where four-year-old gelding Slave Dream is the 5-2 morning-line favourite after drawing post five.

Slave Dream has won three times and hit the board in all six of his appearances at Pompano this winter, earning $35,840. The four-year-old set the track record for trotting geldings with a career-best clocking of 1:55 in this month’s $16,000 Hubert Riedel Memorial Trot, becoming the second Quebec-bred to enter the Pompano record books this winter (along with pacing mare Esmeralda Semalu).

“I wasn’t sure he’d like five-eighths, but he’s stronger this year and taking the turns better. He’s not 100 per cent comfortable but he’s much better than before,” said Beaulieu.

A $62,000 purchase, Slave Dream was the highest-priced yearling sold at auction in Quebec in 2006. Despite losing many of his Quebec Sires Stakes earning opportunities at three because of the crisis in the Quebec racing industry, he won eight races and made $93,425 last year and to date has earned more than $150,000 for Quebec owners Franco Cianci, Isidoro Russo and Vincenzo Monticciolo.
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Slave Dream is due to follow up the Trots & Slots final with his first appearance at The Meadowlands, contesting the Hiram Woodruff series. If he continues to develop, this year’s Maple Leaf Trot might be a possibility, Beaulieu said.

(Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)