Casse Runners Headline Herecomesthebride, Colonel Liam

Trainer Mark Casse will seek to continue his dominance in Gulfstream Park's $215,000 Herecomesthebride Stakes (G3T) March 1 when he saddles a trio of runners led by D. J. Stable and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Vixen . A score in Saturday's Herecomesthebride will give Casse his fourth winner since 2016 in the mile turf contest for sophomore fillies. The Hall of Fame conditioner captured the race most recently last year with Resolute Racing's Pounce .

Vixen, a daughter of red-hot second-crop sire Vekoma  , dazzled in her season debut last time out, exerting her class with a decisive 2 1/4-length victory in the Sweetest Chant Stakes over the Hallandale Beach, Fla., oval. Grade 1-placed last year as a 2-year-old in the Natalma Stakes (G1T) at Woodbine, the filly stopped the clock in a stakes-record time of 1:40.32 for the 1 1/16-mile Sweetest Chant.

John Velazquez, Vixen's rider in her last three outings, retains the mount.

Since posting her first black-type win, Vixen has returned to the work tab, breezing a sharp half-mile in :46.10 Feb. 21 over the turf course at nearby Palm Meadows Training Center.

Vixen is just one of three fillies for Casse, who will also send out recent Gulfstream maiden winners Classic Q  and Smudge , a $525,000 yearling purchase for D. J. Stable.

Godolphin homebred Civetta , a narrow third to Vixen's stablemate Nitrogen  in the Jan. 4 Ginger Brew Stakes, adds blinkers for trainer Brendan Walsh as she goes for her first graded score. A half sister to the multiple grade 1 winner Santin  and by leading sire Into Mischief  , Civetta became her dam Sentiero Italia's second stakes winner when she prevailed by a neck in Gulfstream's Wait a While Stakes Nov. 28.

"She's always performed well for us," said Godolphin USA's director of bloodstock Michael Banahan. "She's a sweet little filly, not very big, and we sort of felt that turf was the right spot for her. She's got a great turn of foot, but you have to sort of produce her late. We've got the right man on her in Irad (Ortiz Jr.) so hopefully he'll be able to do that Saturday. It's a step up in quality to a graded stakes race but we're anxious to see what she can do. Hopefully, it can be a springboard to a nice year for her on the turf."

Mi Bago chases More Black Type in Colonel Liam

Gary Barber's Mi Bago  steps into the starting gate as the sole stakes winner in a wide-open field of 10 colts and geldings in the one-mile $200,000 Colonel Liam Stakes on the turf later on the card.

New York-bred Mi Bago has, in fact, won three stakes for trainer Mark Casse, including back-to-back black-type victories in Gulfstream's Pulpit and Dania Beach stakes.

Four-for-six lifetime, the consistent Vekoma colt, victorious in distances of five furlongs to a mile and 70 yards, secures the services of Irad Ortiz Jr. in his graded debut Saturday.