By Rab Hagin

Co-topweighted among six as the only New York-sired runner in Aqueduct’s Damon Runyon Stakes for 3-year-olds on Saturday, March 15, Repole Stable’s MISSION IMPAZIBLE colt, DREAM BIGGER ($376,178), romped by 7¾ lengths in the $103,500 seven-furlong event to score his third open-margin stakes victory. The favored (2-to-1) long-striding gray was the sixth winner to represent Mission Impazible within the 38-day span of February 6 to March 15. Finishing behind him – most of them carrying less weight – was a son of North America’s leading first-crop sire of 2019 (whose sales yearlings averaged over $400,000 in 2019) plus sons of other Kentucky stallions standing for $15,000 and $10,000 in 2020.

Dream Bigger was in front at every call, although he broke inside and next-to-last from the inside post before using his quick acceleration to gain command in the opening quarter-mile. From the three-eighths pole to mid-stretch (eighth pole), Dream Bigger extended his one-length lead to 4½ lengths, and in the ensuing furlong he increased his margin by more than another three lengths.

Winning trainer Rudy Rodriguez acknowledged that Dream Bigger “ran a big race. He broke a little slow, but Junior (Alvarado) hustled him out of there, and they took it from there.”

Winning jockey Alvarado conceded that Dream Bigger “lost a little momentum going forward at the break. My only plan today was to put him on the lead and see how long he could carry his speed. Today…he carried it all the way to the wire.”

Twice an open-margin odds-on stakes winner at six furlongs as a 2-year-old, the never-unplaced Dream Bigger now has three stakes victories in seven starts. His Damon Runyon victory came on the heels of five other wins by Mission Impazible’s runners since February 6, starting with a 7½-length maiden-breaking tally (over the runner-up favorite) by Sunny Crest Farm’s semi-homebred 3-year-old filly, BECKY’S MISSION, against eight rivals going a mile at Aqueduct. On February 14, Richard J. Troncone Sr.’s and Jr.’s homebred filly, AM IMPAZIBLE, boosted her earnings into six figures by beating eight rivals (including the three-time stakes-placed favorite) in a $69,613 allowance optional mile for her third consecutive open-margin victory at Aqueduct. On February 29 at Puerto Rico’s Camarero Race Track, E.V. Stable’s semi-homebred and May-foaled New York-bred 3-year-old colt, LITTLE TRAFFIC, romped by 8½ lengths at odds-on as the youngest starter in a six-furlong maiden special. On March 9, Perez Stable LLC’s May-foaled 3-year-old Mission Impazible filly, MABEL ISLAND, was “ridden out” to a 4½-length tally at Parx Racing despite a bobbled break in her second start and as that six-furlong maiden special contest’s youngest starter. On March 12, Mission Impazible’s three-time Belmont-Saratoga stakes-placed INALIENABLE RIGHTS ($184,313) won by 3¼ lengths at odds-on at Penn National for Sheila J. Englehart while stretching out to 1 1/16 miles for the first time.