Lexie Lou Carries Casse's Just a Game Hopes

With reigning champion grass mare Tepin across the Atlantic Ocean aiming for Royal Ascot glory, trainer Mark Casse will turn to another champion in Canada's 2014 Horse of the Year Lexie Lou for the $700,000 Longines Just a Game Stakes (gr. I) June 11 at Belmont Park.

Robert Masterson's Tepin, who has added four graded stakes wins this season to her record, is preparing for a start in the Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I) June 14 at Royal Ascot. While Tepin would have been a big favorite in Saturday's Just a Game, Casse will have an intriguing starter in Lexie Lou.

In 2014 Lexie Lou secured Horse of the Year honors in Canada after defeating males in the Queen's Plate Stakes and closing out the year against males again with a second-place finish to dual classic winner California Chrome   in the Hollywood Derby (gr. IT). After finishing second in the 2015 La Canada Stakes (gr. I) in January, she did not race again last season.

This year Lexie Lou has gradually returned to top form. In her first three starts this year, the 5-year-old Sligo Bay mare earned a pair of thirds in allowance/optional claiming races before putting everything together in her most recent start when she seized the lead in deep stretch to win the Nassau Stakes (Can-II) at one mile on the turf May 29 at Woodbine.

"She's an old pro," Casse said. "We decided to cut her back because she had been so eager off the long layoff, and it worked. She was easier to rate."

While Lexie Lou will get a moment out of Tepin's shadow, other runners also will take a crack at a grade I with the divisional leader out of the country. Three Chimneys Farm's Rainha Da Bateria has finished behind the champion in her past two starts, including a second in the Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (gr. II) May 7 at Churchill Downs.

Rainha Da Bateria, a 4-year-old Broken Vow   filly, is one of two entered in the race by trainer Chad Brown, who also will send out William and Suzanne Warren's Mrs McDougal. Winner of last year's Lake George Stakes (gr. IIT) on the Saratoga Race Course turf, Mrs McDougal will be making her first start since the Medaglia d'Oro filly opened her 4-year-old season with a victory in the Plenty of Grace Stakes April 16 on the Aqueduct Racetrack turf.

Trainer Mark Hennig will send out Courtlandt Farm's Strike Dancer off a clear victory in the Beaugay Stakes (gr. IIIT) May 14 on the Belmont turf.

"She really kicked well and I thought she put in a strong finish," Hennig said.

The 1 1/16-mile Beaugay is a key race going into the one-mile Just a Game as the top four finishers from that race have all entered: Strike Dancer, runner-up Tapitry, third-place finisher Recepta, and fourth-place finisher My Miss Sophia, who faded after leading early.

Trainer Bill Mott will send out Alpha Delta Stables' My Miss Sophia as well as the past two winners of the Honey Fox Stakes (gr. IIT) on the Gulfstream Park turf in Ben Sangster's Lady Lara and James Bryan Jr.'s Celestine, who scored a gate to wire victory in this year's Honey Fox.

 

"I didn't think (setting the pace in the Honey Fox) was any surprise, the way it looked on paper," Mott said. "I thought they'd be running at her at the end, but she ended up running away from them."