by Jeff Lowe

Maryland Jockey Club President Chris Dragone found out this week that he would lose his job after this weekend, but he received a nice parting gift on Saturday when his family's Pays to Dream scored a dominant win in the $250,000 Dixie Stakes (G2) at Pimlico Race Course.

Dragone accepted the winning trophy on behalf of his mother, Jane, who races as December Hill Farm.

"It's been a week of highs and lows, and this is definitely the high," Dragone said.

Pays to Dream won the restricted Glow Stakes last August at Saratoga Race Course and finished third in both the Saranac (G3) and Jamaica (G2) Handicaps before stumbling and unseating jockey Javier Castellano in the Rutgers Stakes during Breeders' Cup week at Monmouth Park.

After a six-month break, the New York-bred High Yield gelding returned with a seventh-place finish in the Fort Marcy Handicap (G3) on April 27 at Aqueduct.

With Castellano back aboard on Saturday, Pays to Dream closed from last place into a dawdling pace and kicked away in the stretch to win by 7 1/2 lengths at odds of 19.20-to-1.

"The course is very soft, and you know the horses that were up in front or stalking had the advantage, so that was impressive," trainer David Donk said. "I didn't think he couldn't close into that. That he did, I mean, wow."

Pays to Dream covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:54.74 on turf rated as good. Stay Close (GB) finished second, and Ra Der Dean held for third after leading through six furlongs in a glacial 1:16.24. Shakis, favored at 1.10-to-1, finished fifth in the nine-horse field.

Pays to Dream has won five of 14 career starts and has earned $337,741. Bred by December Hill, the gelding is out of the Time for a Change mare Changing Ways.

For an Equibase chart, click here.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer