Casse Carries Momentum Into Winning Colors Stakes
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Trainer Mark Casse won five stakes between May 18-20, including the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course
Trainer Mark Casse sent out five stakes winners May 18-20, topped by War of Will in the Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course. His stable now looks to keep rolling in the $100,000 Winning Colors Stakes (G3) May 25 at Churchill Downs with Live Oak Plantation's Let It Ride Mom.
"Another stakes we finished first and second. The previous week, we ran three in a stake and finished first, second, and third," Casse said of the May 19 Queenston Stakes and May 12 Fury Stakes, both at Woodbine. Casse also had the exacta in Woodbine's Selene Stakes (G3) Saturday and won the May 20 Tom Ridge Stakes at Presque Isle Downs.
"I think we won something like $1.6 million in purses (last week)," he said.
Let It Ride Mom will compete against 11 others in the Winning Colors for fillies and mares, 3 and up, going six furlongs. The feature marks the Into Mischief mare's 5-year-old debut after missing the board only once in six races last season, all run on a synthetic track. Let It Ride Mom earned her first graded score in April 2018 when she rallied to win the six-furlong Whimsical Stakes (G3) by a head at Woodbine.
She was last seen in the Nov. 25 Bessarabian Stakes (G2) at the Toronto track, where she shifted from the rail to four wide while rallying for third.
"The plan was to take her back to Woodbine," Casse said, "but she's trained so well on the dirt, I wanted to just give her another chance."
Let It Ride Mom returned to the work tab at Churchill Downs in early April after a winter at Live Oak in Ocala, Fla. She worked a half-mile in :48 2/5 over the main track Saturday, which followed a :47 1/5 drill a week earlier. The mare raced twice over the surface as a sophomore, finishing second in an optional-claiming allowance and off the board in a sloppy Eight Belles Stakes Presented by Kentucky Trailer (G2).
Also making her seasonal bow in the Winning Colors—and her first start for trainer Joe Sharp—is Carl R. Moore Management's Classy Act. The 4-year-old Into Mischief filly receives a class break following off-the-board finishes in the Prioress Stakes (G2) and Longines Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. Trained by Bret Calhoun in her first two seasons, Classy Act earned graded stakes placings last year with runner-up efforts in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots and Victory Ride Stakes (G3) at Belmont Park. She turned in a bullet five-furlong breeze May 15 at Keeneland in 1:00 1/5.
Trainer Buff Bradley and Carl Hurst's Divine Queen and Dreamchaser Thorobreds' Astrollinthepark both own stakes wins over Churchill Downs' main track. Divine Queen got up by a head to win the Sept. 22 Dogwood Strakes going seven furlongs and last ran sixth in Keeneland's Madison Stakes (G1) April 6. Astrollinthepark is also looking to get back on the board in her first start since December. She was a two-length winner of the Roxelana Overnight Stakes over this course and distance in June.
Churchill Downs, Saturday, May 25, 2019, Race 10Entries: Winning Colors S. (G3)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Quick Quick Quick (KY)
Chris Landeros
120
Ian R. Wilkes
15/1
2
2Annathela (KY)
James Graham
120
George R. Arnold, II
12/1
3
3Upset Brewing (KY)
Edgar Morales
120
William B. Bradley
12/1
4
4Classy Act (KY)
Adam Beschizza
120
Joe Sharp
6/1
5
5She's a Gypsy (KY)
Corey J. Lanerie
120
Helen Pitts
12/1
6
6Divine Queen (KY)
Calvin H. Borel
120
William B. Bradley
8/1
7
7Let It Ride Mom (KY)
Tyler Gaffalione
120
Mark E. Casse
6/1
8
8Astrollinthepark (KY)
Gabriel Saez
120
J. Larry Jones
5/1
9
9Awestruck (KY)
Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.
120
George R. Arnold, II
3/1
10
10Salt Bae (KY)
Ricardo Santana, Jr.
120
Bernard S. Flint
6/1
11
11Honey Bunny (KY)
Tyler Baze
120
John Alexander Ortiz
12/1
12
12Suzette (KY)
Javier Padron-Barcenas
120
Tina Rena Hurley
50/1
