Casners Aim to Add Chapter to Dubai Success
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Bill and Susan Casner have won many of America's most prestigious races, from the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) with Super Saver to the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) with Drosselmeyer , but the pinnacle of their years in horse racing was reached thousands of miles away from their Texas home with Well Armed in the 2009 Dubai World Cup (UAE-I).
The Casners won those races under the WinStar Farm banner when they formerly partnered with Kenny Troutt. Bill Casner still vividly remembers the words announcer Terry Spargo summoned when he called the finish of Well Armed's World Cup, his eyes still reflect the bright glimmer of that victory in the final race ever run at Nad Al Sheba, the predecessor of the opulent Meydan Racecourse.
"From Cigar to Well Armed, I believe that was the call that night," Casner said while standing at the rail during morning training at Meydan this week. "That memory is burned into my mind and that was good company to be in."
Winning the world's richest race in the hoofprints of legendary runners such as Cigar and Dubai Millennium (2000) was sweet enough, but for the Casners, the victory by their homebred Well Armed was even more meaningful because they had nursed the gelding back to health after a fractured pelvis left him near death.
"That was absolutely the highest mountain top that Susan and I have ever stood on," Casner said of healing Well Armed and watching him crush his Dubai World Cup competition in a record-breaking 14-length win.
The euphoria of capturing the race has led the Casners back to the United Arab Emirates this week in the company of Well Armed's trainer, former Godolphin conditioner Eoin Harty, with hopes of reaching another racing peak. The trio has returned with a 3-year-old colt they bred named My Johnny Be Good, who will compete in the $2 million Saeed & Mohammed Al Naboodah Group United Arab Emirates Derby (UAE-II) on the World Cup undercard March 28 at Meydan.
"We're excited about being here," Casner said. "We've been waiting for a horse good enough to bring back to Dubai."
Casner Racing's My Johnny Be Good, by Colonel John , has won a pair of races, finished third in the Sam F. Davis Stakes (gr. III) at Tampa Bay Downs and has potential to improve.
Casner described the bay colt as "a beautiful horse and a good-minded horse" and said he "shipped very well and couldn't be doing any better."
Harty has secured for My Johnny Be Good the services of American jockey Victor Espinoza, the regular rider of regining U.S. Horse of the Year California Chrome, the morning-line favorite in the $10 million Emirates Dubai World Cup.