Telekinesis Leads Casse-Trained Queen's Plate Trio

It wasn't telekinesis, but trainer Mark Casse used his mental powers to move the horse who is now favored to win the June 30 Queen's Plate at Woodbine to his string a few years ago.

When a striking Ontario-bred son of Ghostzapper  was offered as a weanling at the 2015 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, Casse had his eye on the colt for another client. The bidding climbed to $470,000 and Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings emerged victorious, but Casse wasn't done yet.

"He's an extremely beautiful horse—well-made," the trainer recalled. "I was the underbidder on him for another client, and Stonestreet bought him, and of course I went to (Stonestreet owner) Barbara (Banke) and (bloodstock agent) John Moynihan and said I would really like to train him, and we got him."

Now named Telekinesis, that colt out of the Street Cry mare Intentional Cry looms the one to beat at 5-2 on the Queen's Plate morning line off an impressive victory in the June 9 Plate Trial. The 1 1/4-mile Queen's Plate, North America's oldest annually run race, features a field of 16 Ontario-bred sophomores for its 159th running—the largest field since 2011.

Telekinesis will have another furlong to contend with in the Queen's Plate, but he pulled away in the closing stages of the Plate Trial, his longest race to date and his first on a synthetic surface. The bay colt won his first start Feb. 9 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, finished third there in optional-claiming allowance company March 9, and came in a close second to My Boy Jack in the April 14 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes (G3) at Keeneland before his Plate Trial win. 

"He just was faster than everybody else," Casse said. "He was always right at the top of the class as a young horse."

Jockey Patrick Husbands, who piloted Telekinesis for the first time in the Plate Trial, retains the mount from post 10.

"He's going to have speed from out there," Casse said. "He'll be the most forwardly placed of my runners."

The last horse to pull off the Plate Trial-Queen's Plate double was Big Red Mike, who became the third consecutive horse to accomplish that feat in 2010. Two of the last three Queen's Plate winners are offspring of Ghostzapper: Holy Helena (2017) and Shaman Ghost  (2015).

Gary Barber's Wonder Gadot, also conditioned by Casse, enters the Queen's Plate off a second-place finish as the odds-on choice in the Woodbine Oaks Presented by Budweiser and is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line. Barber and Casse teamed in 2014 to win the Queen's Plate—their only win in the classic—with eventual Canadian Horse of the Year Lexie Lou.

Wonder Gadot was purchased for $325,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales April 2017 Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and put her star power on display from the start. She earned a Sovereign Award as Canada's champion 2-year-old filly with a win in the Mazarine Stakes (G3) on Woodbine's Tapeta and a victory in the Demoiselle Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Prior to the 1 1/8-mile Woodbine Oaks, the Medaglia d'Oro  filly was knocking hard against the best in her division and hit the board in six stakes, including a half-length loss to undefeated Monomoy Girl in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1). Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez will ship in from New York to Wonder Gadot from post 11.

"She can cause some of her bad luck," Casse said. "Her Kentucky Oaks performance was just tremendous. She hopped at the start in the (Woodbine) Oaks, was a little wide, but still had every shot to win, so I was a little disappointed in her. We are going to add blinkers for this next start. ... She tends to want to hang a little when she's coming down to the wire, and we're hoping that maybe with blinkers she'll keep on running."



Chiefswood Stable's homebred Neepawa, a third runner for Casse, finished second in the Nov. 5 Coronation Futurity behind Queen's Plate contender Aheadbyacentury and broke his maiden over 1 1/16 miles on Gulfstream Park turf in January. He came in third last time out in a 1 1/16 mile first-level allowance at Woodbine May 20.

"He's by Scat Daddy," Casse said. "He's a horse that we've always kind of felt like would get better. Most of the Chiefswood horses are bred to run on and get better as they get older, and we've kind of felt that would be the case with him and he has. He's really, especially in the last couple months, started training better and getting bigger and stronger. I know a mile and a quarter will not be an issue for him."

Woodbine Oaks winner Dixie Moon defeated Wonder Gadot by a head and will look to become the seventh filly to pull off the Woodbine Oaks-Queen's Plate double. A homebred who races for Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry, Dixie Moon was coming into the Woodbine Oaks off a second-place finish, beaten a neck by Miss Mo Mentum, in Woodbine's Selene Stakes (G3) going 1 1/16 miles.

Last year Dixie Moon defeated males for trainer Catherine Day Phillips when she won the Cup and Saucer for Canadian-breds at 1 1/16 miles on the turf. The Curlin  filly then took down fellow Ontario-foaled fillies in the Ontario Lassie Stakes at the same distance on Tapeta.

The time for the Woodbine Oaks was .02 seconds faster than the Plate Trial two races earlier on the same card. Oaks winners have fared very well in the Queen's Plate. Three of the last seven Oaks winners have taken the Queen's Plate, with the latest being Holy Helena last year. Fillies are assigned 121 pounds, five less than their male opponents.

Chiefswood Stable has another homebred contender in Rose's Vision, a sharp winner of two turf races in the United States this year who made his Tapeta debut when he ran sixth in the May 13 Marine Stakes (G3) going 1 1/16 miles. Given a second chance on the surface at a longer distance by trainer Stu Simon, Rose's Vision rebounded to finish second in the Plate Trial, when he pressed Telekinesis throughout and finished 4 3/4 lengths clear of third-place Aheadbyacentury. 

Aheadbyacentury took the 1 1/8-mile Coronation Futurity for Canadian-bred 2-year-olds for trainer John Ross, who also owns the colt in partnership with Jack of Hearts Racing Stable, and finished third in the Marine. No horse has been able to pull off the Coronation-Queen's Plate double since Norcliffe in 1976.



Sam-Son Farm, looking for its sixth Queen's Plate win, has a pair of homebreds in Strike Me Down and Say the Word, both trained by Graham Motion.

Strike Me Down has made three of his four starts on turf. He finished second in last year's Cup and Saucer and in the June 2 Tale of the Cat Stakes at Monmouth Park. The Tapit  colt's lone win came on the Woodbine Tapeta in his sophomore debut, a 1 1/16-mile maiden race in which he led throughout.

Say the Word prepped for the Plate with a third at Woodbine May 27, when he finished behind a pair of older horses in that first-level allowance race at 1 1/16 miles.

The $1 million Queen's Plate on Tapeta at Woodbine is the first leg of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, which continues with the July 24 Prince of Wales Stakes over 1 3/16 miles on dirt at Fort Erie and wraps up with the Aug. 18 Breeder's Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on Woodbine's E.P. Taylor turf course.

Entries: Queen's Plate S.

Woodbine, Saturday, June 30, 2018, Race 10

• STK
• 1 1/4m
• All Weather Track
• $1,000,000
• 3 yo
• 5:36 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Boyhood Dream (ON)	Alan Garcia	126	Michael J. Maker	30/1
2	2Cooler Mike (ON)	Jesse M. Campbell	126	Nicholas Nosowenko	30/1
3	3Inge (ON)	Chantal Sutherland	126	Norman McKnight	30/1
4	4Strike Me Down (ON)	Jose L. Ortiz	126	H. Graham Motion	10/1
5	5Silent Poet (ON)	Gary Boulanger	126	Nicholas Gonzalez	30/1
6	6Real Dude (ON)	David Moran	126	Sid C. Attard	50/1
7	7Dixie Moon (ON)	Eurico Rosa Da Silva	121	Catherine Day Phillips	4/1
8	8Alternative Route (ON)	Mitchell Murrill	126	Albert M. Stall, Jr.	20/1
9	9Say the Word (ON)	Rafael Manuel Hernandez	126	H. Graham Motion	20/1
10	10Telekinesis (ON)	Patrick Husbands	126	Mark E. Casse	5/2
11	11Wonder Gadot (ON)	John R. Velazquez	121	Mark E. Casse	3/1
12	12Pawnbroker (ON)	Joel Rosario	126	Michael J. Maker	50/1
13	13Marriage Counselor (ON)	Jalon L. Samuel	126	Michael J. Maker	50/1
14	14Neepawa (ON)	Florent Geroux	126	Mark E. Casse	15/1
15	15Aheadbyacentury (ON)	Luis Contreras	126	John A. Ross	15/1
16	16Rose's Vision (ON)	Javier Castellano	126	Stuart C. Simon	12/1