Pennsylvania native Dominique Damico has been a horsewoman all her life, riding hunters and jumpers. Her already impressive career reached new heights Aug. 9 when a 2-year-old colt she bred—Diciassette won the Proud Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park, scoring her first stakes win as a breeder.
The Florida-bred son of Mitole was returning off a maiden win July 20 for trainer Patrick Biancone and owners Green With MV Stable.
In 2003, Damico started her own business—Ramble On Farm, now located in Ocala, Fla where she specializes in training, showing, and selling horses and ponies. Damico moved to Ocala in 2022, influenced by the opening of the World Equestrian Center, a place she could show Grand Prix-level horses locally.
Damico decided to dabble in the Thoroughbred business in 2020 when her boyfriend was transitioning from show horses to the racing business, and they became partners in that journey.
"It was something that always interested me because of the turnaround time," Damico said. "With breeding show horses, it takes quite a bit longer to produce them. With Thoroughbreds, you have an opportunity to sell them as weanlings, yearlings, etc."
Damico, who now owns around 18 broodmares, got off to a fast start in a humbling business. They have bred many winners over the last few years, but that rewarding feeling reached a pinnacle Saturday when Diciassette crossed the finish line a length in front in the Proud Man Stakes.
Damico said she knew from the start that the bay colt was special.
"The mare (Im a Dixie Diva) always has big, correct, fast, early-looking foals," Damico said. "He was definitely one of those."
Damico purchased the mare Im a Dixie Diva in 2021 for just $2,500 at the Ocala Breeders' Winter Mixed Sale. Im a Dixie Diva had a lackluster race career, but her pedigree stood out to Damico and her boyfriend as she is a half sister to multiple grade 1 winner Mor Spirit .
"That was the motivation behind breeding her to Mitole," Damico said on being a sibling to Mor Spirit. "The same Eskendereya cross. She's a beautiful mare, and we thought we would take a chance on her."
In 2022, Im a Dixie Diva was entered in the Fasig-Tipton December Digital Selected Sale where she failed to meet her reserve after bringing a final bid of $19,000. Perhaps that was divine intervention for Damico.
"It did work out," said Damico of retaining the mare. "We are very lucky to have her. She has a very nice Roadster weanling that we will probably aim for OBS January (Sale)."
Diciasette would go through the sales ring a few more times before landing with his current connections when Biancone purchased the colt for $100,000 at this year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale from Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables.
He broke his maiden on debut and is undefeated in two starts.
"It's definitely a learning curve, but you learn as you go through," Damico said. "You can learn something new every day with horses in general. We've had a bunch of winners over the last couple of years, we're very fortunate."
