Red-Hot Casse Gears Up for Breeders' Cup
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Photo: Keeneland Photo
Mark Casse at Keeneland Sunday Oct. 4.
Take a look back at the Saratoga Race Course meet, where trainer Mark Casse almost couldn't buy a winner, and it's remarkable to see how the tables have turned.
Coming off a summer where they took just three races from 42 starts for a 7% win rate, Team Casse is killing it at Keeneland. The barn has sent out five winners in the first three days of the autumn race meet alone—two of them in graded stakes—winning 45% of the time. They have six contenders for the Breeders' Cup World Championships to be run at the end of October at the Lexington oval.
"I judge meets not how we necessarily we do at a meet, but how we come out of it, and I had to keep talking to my staff—especially (son and assistant trainer) Norman," 54-year-old Casse said. "Everybody was pretty depressed, but I said, 'This is going to make us have one of the strongest meets we've ever had.'
Mark Casse at the trophy presentation for Tepin's First Lady victory.
"It never fails. When we broke the record at Churchill in the '80s, before that we had the worst Keeneland meet ever... I'm supposed to be the motivator. We felt like we were coming in bringing some live horses, but you never can predict this kind of success."
After winning maiden special weights Oct. 2 with Conquest Big E and Conquest Windycity, on Oct. 3 Casse saddled Robert Masterson's Tepin to a brilliant seven-length victory in the First Lady Stakes (gr. IT) and declared her ready for a run against the boys in the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT). The 4-year-old daughter of Bernstein finally demolished her rivals under jockey Julien Leparoux after losing two heartbreakers this summer, when edged in the Ketel One Ballston Spa (gr. IIT) by Dacita and a nosed by Hard Not to Like in the Diana Stakes (gr. IT).
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"The thing about her is she runs on any turf course—anything you throw at her," Casse said. "When I put Julien up, I said 'Hang on, because she is fired up.' I still kind of watch with one eye open when I watch these races, but to see her become what she's become is amazing."
Tepin was the second winner on the Saturday card for Casse, who also saddled Coastline to take an allowance event. Then it was on to Sunday, when the team sent out John Oxley's Airoforce to win the Dixiana Bourbon Stakes (gr. IIIT), while Gabe Grossberg's Siding Spring finished third in that event.
Mark Casse at the trophy presentation after Airoforce's Dixiana Bourbon Stakes win.
"We left these two horses at Churchill this summer and I have to say, Jamie Begg, who is our assistant there, did a great job getting them ready," Casse said of the Bourbon runners. "Right now I would say (along with Airoforce), Siding Spring will run in the Breeders' Cup, and we also have Conquest Daddyo (winner of the Sept. 12 Summer Stakes, Can-IIT), so we have three (for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, gr. IT).
"If he gets in, I'm going to run Conquest Big E (in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile, gr. I). He just got beat last time out by the horse of Dale's (Brody's Cause) that won (the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, gr. I), and we had a terrible trip that day, so I have a lot of confidence in that horse, I think he's a really good horse."
Casse also has Catch a Glimpse, who races for Gary Barber, Michael James Ambler, and Windways Farm, for the Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. IT). She won the Sept. 12 Natalma Stakes (Can-IIT) at Woodbine last out.
"She's unbelievable, that filly," the trainer said. "She was just phenomenal in the Natalma."
Casse said he was preparing to breeze Catch a Glimpse and Conquest Daddyo over the track the morning of Oct. 4 when they had to hold off due to the unfortunate breakdown of Graham Motion-trained stakes winner Tacticus. The two Breeders' Cup contenders will now work Oct. 6.
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"I feel for Graham," Casse said. "I'm still not over our loss of Danzig Moon (who broke down in the June 14 Plate Trial). It's very difficult. People don't realize. I read comments, and they want to say this and that, but these are our kids, you know? We love them, and we take this very serious, especially the people that work with them."
"I feel for Graham," Casse said. "I'm still not over our loss of Danzig Moon (who broke down in the June 14 Plate Trial). It's very difficult. People don't realize. I read comments, and they want to say this and that, but these are our kids, you know? We love them, and we take this very serious, especially the people that work with them."