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In Today's Notes:
· 'Capp', 'Jack' Both Work Wednesday for Saturday's Classic
· Daring to Dream with Three Punch Louie
· Sunday's Dr. Fager Gets 21 Nominations
· Bits & Bridles

George Todaro, Howard Litt & Jerry Hollendorfer's Cappuchino, newly arrived from Northern California in anticipation of Saturday's Grade II Arlington Classic, worked a half-mile in :51 over the Arlington Park turf course Wednesday in a final serious prep for that mile and a sixteenth grass test.

"It was a real good work," said Jerry Hollendorfer, Arlington's defending trainer champion and conditioner of Cappuchino. "I was very pleased. All systems are 'go' for Saturday."

Cappuchino's work was accomplished with jockey Randy Meier aboard, and with the 'dogs' up well out from the inside. The bay colt by Capote was victorious in his last outing when he led throughout in Bay Meadows' $55,000 Round Table on June 1 while still in Northern California.

Stewart M. Madison's Jeremiah Jack, coming off an impressive win at Churchill Downs in his grass debut May 31, was clocked in :51 3/5 for four furlongs over the local lawn Wednesday. Jeremiah Jack worked in company with a 4-year-old filly named Quest for Ambition. Jockey Eddie Razo Jr. was up on Jeremiah Jack and Quest for Ambition had Shane Laviolette aboard.

Jeremiah Jack has been based locally recently to prepare for the Arlington Classic, and trainer Tom Amoss, although still in Louisville, is due to arrive locally prior to Saturday's test.

The Arlington Classic, the first Grade II event of the 2002 season, is also the first leg of Arlington's Mid-America Triple, a grass series restricted to 3-year-olds that annually attracts sophomores of world class caliber. After Saturday, the series continues with the Grade II American Derby at a mile and three-sixteenths July 21 and concludes with the Grade I Secretariat at a mile and a quarter August 17.

The $400,000 Secretariat is part of the one-day International Festival of Racing on Arlington Million Day, which boasts a total of three Grade I races including the $700,000 Beverly D. for fillies and mares.

However, the Arlington Classic has its own history in 67 previous renewals. In addition to Tom Rolfe, Buckpasser and Honor Glide, the only horses to sweep the Mid-America Triple, the Classic's winners include a host of Hall of Fame Thoroughbreds. Blue Larkspur, Gallant Fox, Omaha, Native Dancer, Nashua, Tosmah and Alydar all won the Arlington Classic and all have bronze plaques at the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs.

DARING TO DREAM WITH THREE PUNCH LOUIE
Three Punch Louie, the Kentucky-bred juvenile who brought the top bid of $50,000 in last Saturday's Illinois Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Foundation 2002 Annual Sale of 2-year-olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age, was purchased by Allen and Michael Faber, Terry Bruner and Hector Magana.

The sale was held at Arlington Park Saturday evening as part of the Prairie State Festival Day program at the local oval.

The Fabers are the base of a new aptly named group called the Dare To Dream Stable, and not surprisingly, they are extremely pleased with their son of 1996 Preakness winner Louis Quatorze out of the Two Punch mare Two Punch Lil.

"We never thought we'd get this horse," Allen Faber said, when interviewed with his brother Mike the morning after their purchase. "We thought Three Punch Louie was out of our league. We heard they were offered almost $100,000 earlier in the week and turned it down. But when he was in the ring and got to $50,000 and no one was bidding, we decided to pool our money with Hector Magana and Terry Bruner and get the horse."

Mike Faber, 39, has an import business, while his brother, 37, is active in the fast food restaurant industry. Both Fabers have previously been passive owners in Internet groups, but this is the first time they have been active in an ownership group. They had talked to a number of trainers before deciding to hook up with Hector Magana.

"As soon as we met Hector, we knew he was the guy for us," Mike Faber said. "He welcomed us into his barn like he had known us for years. I knew he was the best man for our partnership. He's a hands-on guy in the hay with the horses."

Other partners in the Three Punch Louie group include Barry Sussman, Mike McGuire and Roland Dancy, but in total, Dare To Dream has 24 partners (20 men and four women) hailing from Illinois, New York and Arkansas. The brothers started Dare To Dream about two months ago.

"He's going to gallop and jog on alternating days for a little while," Allen Faber said of Three Punch Louie's immediate future. "We won't be rushing him. He's probably a couple of months away."

SUNDAY'S DR. FAGER GETS 21 NOMINATIONS
Ron L. Brandenburg's Tic N Tin, hero of Saturday's $84,400 White Oak Handicap at Arlington Park, highlights a group of 21 3-year-olds and upward nominated to Sunday's feature attraction, the $42,000 Dr. Fager Handicap at seven furlongs.

"That's stretching him out a little bit," said owner-trainer Brandenburg about the Dr. Fager, "but we'll take a look at it."

In the White Oak, contested at six furlongs, Tic N Tin made or forced the pace throughout before proving a nose best at the wire.

Also nominated to the Dr. Fager is Humberto Gracia's Spectacular Cat, who won at last asking here June 13 when claimed by his present connections. Two years ago, when racing in the silks of the late Bill Davenport and his wife Dee, Spectacular Cat won the inaugural running of the Spectacular Bid Stakes here.

BITS & BRIDLES
· The first 2,500 Twin Spires Club (TSC) members in the Park on Saturday will receive a Twin Spires Club wallet. A few lucky TSC members will receive a wallet with anywhere from $50 to $1,000 in wagering vouchers. People who are not members of TSC will be able to sign up on site with no membership fee involved, and still receive the TSC wallet.
· Friday's band for Party In The Park is Johnny Star and the Meteors, who play 50s rock.
· Seventy-five years ago tomorrow, on June 27, 1927, ground was broken and construction began on the original Arlington Park grandstand, clubhouse and two racing strips.
· Thirteen years ago Friday, on June 28, 1989, the rebuilt Arlington opened.