Mark Casse

LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton October Yearlings Sale continued its brisk pace Wednesday, with figures tracking towards a record gross figure as the auction heads into its final session Thursday. "It was another excellent session of the October sale," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. "The sale continued to show strength and consistency in bidding activity from the beginning to the end of the session." Through three sessions, 839 yearlings have grossed $43,346,500 for an average of $51,664 and a median of $20,000. At the same point a year ago,...

Seemingly hopelessly beaten turning for home in Sunday's GIII Matron Stakes, Abientot turned on all boosters late to collect her first career black-type victory in New York. Breaking well from the 10-hole, the Tracy Farmer runner was eased to the back by Dylan Davis as first Flirting With Time (Yorkton) and then Laurice (Bolt d'Oro) led through opening fractions of :21.58 and :44.48. Finally unfurling her legs turning for home, Abientot was moving twice as fast as everyone else down the lane, caught the front running rank in the final...

Continuing an important weekend as next month's Breeders' Cup World Championships rapidly approach, Keeneland's GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes headlines Sunday's graded stakes action spanning from coast to coast. A 'Win and You're In' for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, the Spinster has six contenders signed on, including last season's champion older mare Idiomatic (Curlin), who draws the rail under regular pilot Florent Geroux. The winner of a trio of Grade I stakes in 2023--capped off by the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita--the Juddmonte homebred has proven consistent at...

8th-Belmont The Big A, $90,000, Msw, 10-3, 2yo, f, 6fT, 1:09.68, fm, 2 lengths. CANDY QUEST (f, 2, Connect--Candy Crush, by Candy Ride {Arg}), a $225,000 Keeneland September yearling who was the priciest of her sire's 31 yearlings reported as sold in 2023 (43 ring), set her sights on heavily favored Tam I Am (Authentic) entering the final eighth of a mile and kicked past with relative ease to graduate in very professional fashion at first asking Thursday afternoon. Live on the board at 9-2 from a 5-1 morning line,...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland September Yearling Sale continued ahead of its 2023 edition as Book 3 concluded Sunday night with a colt by Maxfield leading the way when selling for $575,000. Through the two Book 3 sessions, 526 yearlings sold through the ring for a gross of $83,880,000. The section's average was $159,468--up 4.7% from a year ago--and the median was $130,000, an increase of 13.04%. Ten horses sold for $500,000 or more, compared to 13 hitting that mark a year ago. During last year's Book 3 section, 562...

Mark Casse-trained horses ran 1-2-3-5 in the first of Saturday's Grade I events at Woodbine, the Natalma Stakes, led by Live Oak's And One More Time (Omaha Beach). The barn accounted for the exacta in the day's final elite-level affair when 13-1 Win for the Money (Mohaymen) slipped through at the fence following a ground-saving journey to upend pacesetting stablemate Filo Di Arianna (Brz) (Drosselmeyer) in the GI Rogers Woodbine Mile and punch his ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 2. Content to linger...

Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse won 15 races out of 53 starts during the tough as nails Saratoga meet this season, which amounted to a 28% clip. One of those runners who got her picture taken was La Cara (Street Sense--Cara Caterina, by Bernardini). Off that performance, she rolled into Louisville for the GIII Pocahontas Stakes and won, which earned her 10 points on the path to next May's running of the GI Kentucky Oaks. In the first two starts of her career under the Twin Spires earlier this...

Trainer Mark Casse had won the GI Natalma Stakes no fewer than seven times dating back to Woodford Racing's Sprung (Grand Slam) back in 2006, but he had not succeeded since 2016, when Victory to Victory (Exchange Rate) carried the silks of Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Stud. The Hall of Famer had every chance to add to that total and snap the drought in Saturday's renewal, as he saddled six of the 11 juvenile fillies that went postward, and when all was said and done, the stable accounted for the...

Leading the graded stakes action on Saturday, there is something gruff and boomy about the barbaric 'yalp' of the European invaders who are set to swarm Woodbine's gates on Turf Champions Day. One can understand this hoard's verve as the booty is worth pillaging since three out of the four Grade I races on the docket are connected to some highly-prized Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' tickets.   Euros Wind Trebuchets Out of this auspicious Canadian slate, first up is the GI Natalma Stakes which offers entry into the...

5th-Woodbine, C$73,722, Msw, 9-8, 2yo, 5fT, :57.43, gd, 1 1/4 lengths. TAPIT KISSIT WINIT (c, 2, Tapit--Let It Ride Mom {GSW-Can, GSP-USA, $380,501}, by Into Mischief), sent off the 8-5 second choice for his debut, broke awkwardly as favored Crucial Taunt (Karakontie {Jpn}) rushed to the front while Springer (Complexity) completely blew the start, checking out early. Settled into a track fourth as the pacesetter raced through a quarter in :22.17, the Live Oak homebred began to pick up the tempo as Miss Mitole (Mitole) bolted and threw out the...

6th-Saratoga, $90,000, (S), Msw, 8-25, 2yo, f, 5 1/2fT, 1:03.94, fm, 1 1/2 lengths. CHARLOTTE'S HEART (f, 2, Authentic--Achalaya, by Bellamy Road), the 3-1 half-sister to Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), MGISW-USA, MGSP-KSA, $2,691,308, showed an affinity for the Saratoga turf may run in the family. Racing near the back of the field in her afternoon debut for trainer Mark Casse, the $725,000 yearling purchase had plenty of work to do turning for home but really hit her best stride late when switched out to the center of the track. Pacesetter...

The betting public pounded D J Stable's previously undefeated Bullet (War Front) into 3-5 favoritism for Friday's Catch a Glimpse Stakes at Woodbine, but it was the same outfit's uncoupled SHIFTY (f, 2, Medaglia d'Oro--Elusive Luci, by Elusive Quality) who spoiled the party at odds of 11-1. Given her chance in stakes company off a slow-starting fifth in a six-furlong maiden July 4, the $350,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling emerged from a line of about five or six horses to take up the running down the backstretch and led them along...