07/20/19 | Arlington Heights, IL – Dare To Dream Stable’s Memory Bank became a stake winner by dominating the $75K Black Tie Affair Handicap at Arlington Park in race #8 today. What started out as an extremely hot sunny day in Chicago, suddenly turned into a cool rain soaked late afternoon, causing the Black Tie Affair to be taken off the turf and moved onto Arlington’s Polytrack. With that surface switch, there were a few scratches which moved Memory Bank to the inside post and leaving the race void of much speed. Jockey Mitchell Murrill was given instructions in the paddock to either try to go to the front or sit right off the only true speed horse in Christian C. Murrill was very aggressive in trying to get Memory Bank to the front as the gates opened, but jockey Jose Valdivia aboard Christian C aggressively angled in and cut off Murrill while almost slamming Memory Bank into the rail before the first turn. At that point, Murrill smartly guided Memory Bank to the outside and quickly got on the flank of the leader. Those positions did not change on the backside with Memory Bank always right on the throat latches of Christian C. Approaching the seven sixteenths, Murrill asked Memory Bank for a bit more and collared Christian C who was now under a drive and having trouble keeping up. Memory Bank spurted away and opened up a clear advantage into the top of the stretch. From there on Mitchell just had to keep Memory Bank focused on finishing the job. He did just that, crossing the wire an easy 3 length winner with long shot Hannity finishing second ahead of the tiring Christian C.

With this stake win Memory Bank surpassed $200,000 in career earnings. The consistent 5 yr old chestnut son of Misremembered, who gives his all each and every race, now has 5 wins from his 22 starts. Along with those wins are 7 seconds and 6 thirds, making him an outstanding 18 of 22 in the money with total earnings of $202,876.

Congratulations to all the Dare To Dream Stable partners, many of whom were in attendance for this great victory. It was another fantastic training job by Mike Stidham, Hilary Pridham, Rigo Rosas and the entire Stidham team. Finally kudos to jockey Mitchell Murrill who rode a picture perfect race in guiding Memory Bank to victory. A special congratulations to Mitchell as this was his first stakes victory at Arlington Park! We were fortunate to also be a part of the first stakes victory of his career when he guided Jockamo’s Song to victory at the Fairgrounds back in 2015.

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