Mark Casse

Grade II winner Pappacap (Gun Runner), has been retired and will stand the 2024 breeding season at Gary Broad's Walmac Farm in Lexington, KY, the farm announced on Tuesday. His fee will be $12,500, stands and nurses. In three seasons for Hall of Famer Mark Casse, Pappacap amassed a career line of 12-2-4-2 for earnings of $842,430. In addition to capturing the 2021 GII Best Pal S. at Del Mar, he was second in the GI TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile and GI American Pharoah S. behind champion Corniche (Quality Road)....

Horse racing is at an existential moment. Just weeks after a series of breakdowns at Churchill Downs cast a shadow over the Kentucky Derby, a wave of horrifying horse deaths at Saratoga Race Course has once again brought questions about safety to the forefront of public consciousness. This is a tragedy, as every horse that breaks down also breaks our hearts. However, I believe our sport has reached a tipping point, and I predict there will be a Silver Lining emerging from all these tragedies. In the past week, I...

In the wake of a tragic stretch of breakdowns at Saratoga, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to advocate for a switch to synthetic, a surface which he considers far safer and easier on horses than dirt, and admit that he is not as proud to represent this industry as he once was.

Appearing as the Green Group Guest of the Week on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse grew emotional when the subject of the rash of fatalities that have plagued the sport this year came up. Believing that the industry has not done all that it can to help alleviate the situation and that tracks must embrace a return to synthetic surfaces, Casse admitted that his outlook on his profession and the sport has changed for the worse. "This is sad to...

In racing, there is nothing more horrific than watching a horse break down in front of you. My heart goes out to every person connected with each of the horses that has lost its life in this manner and to each fan who's witnessed this. As my husband said after Maple Leaf Mel's tragic end, "They're just innocent animals!" He left immediately after her death, horrorstruck, and, fortunately, was not at the track on Travers Day. Like countless other casual fans who've seen such awful things, it is unlikely that...

The sales topper from the '22 Canadian September Yearling Sale, My Boy Prince (Cairo Prince), did not disappoint when he built on his second out maiden-breaking score from June 18 by romping home in the Simcoe S. After that six-length win at Woodbine last time out, trainer Mark Casse was forced to shut him down because of a foot abscess, but the gray colt rebounded nicely to go off as the 1-5 favorite here. My Boy Prince broke alertly and took control of the pace from Summer Commander up the...

Mark Casse may have made more starts over dirt and synthetic surfaces combined than any other trainer in history-over 5,000 starts on synthetic and 5,000 on dirt in the past 15 years alone. He estimates that he has sent horses out to gallop, breeze, or race over a synthetic surface 150,000 times in the past 10 years.  With a base at Woodbine, where they race and train over a Tapeta surface which sports one of the lowest instances of catastrophic injuries in North America, Casse offered to sit down with...

On paper, it appeared that Paramount Prince (Society's Chairman) had many things going for him heading into the 164th King's Plate at Woodbine. Trained by Mark Casse, who is one of only a handful of individuals who has been honored by both the U.S. and Canadian Hall of Fames, the chestnut was benefitting from the services of another Canadian stalwart in Patrick Husbands. Not to mention he is owned by Michael Langlois and Gary Barber, the latter well-known for having campaigned the likes of a trio of Classic winners--2019 Preakness...

A total of 17 sophomores--including Woodbine Oaks heroine Elysian Field (Hard Spun) and U.S.-based Kalik (Collected)-have signed on to contest Sunday's King's Plate, the initial jewel in the OLG Canadian Triple Crown. Held at Woodbine's Trackside Clubhouse, Wednesday's King's Plate breakfast was highlighted by the post-position draw, which was co-hosted by Woodbine TV personality Jeff Bratt and Woodbine track announcer Robert Geller. Being run for the 164th time, making it North America's oldest continually run race, the 1 1/4-mile test will be contested as the King's Plate for the first...

Last month, California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) chairman Greg Ferraro scratched a persistent industry itch. While discussing his thoughts on the rollout of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) drug control program, Ferraro shared his fears that the new federal rules on joint injections were weaker than had previously existed in California. "It's a step backwards," Ferraro said. And this regulatory reshuffle, he added, could lead to an increase in California of irreparable musculoskeletal injuries, especially of the fetlock joint. "California is the point of the spear in terms...

With the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, a bevy of graded stakes--marked by Saturday's GI Whitney S.--plus, the annual Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale which begins Monday, Upstate New York once again makes its case as the Thoroughbred fulcrum. To get the weekend started early, we have a pair of Friday graded turf stakes scheduled which will crown winners. First, the $400,000 GIII Saratoga Oaks Invitational S. for 3-year-old fillies serves as the middle sparkler in NYRA's Fasig-Tipton Turf Tiara series. Since Aspen Grove (Ire) (Justify) has elected to take on the...

Bet down from a 12-1 morning line to be off at less than half that quote, Team Valor International and Gary Barber's Elysian Field (Hard Spun) stamped her authority on Sunday's Woodbine Oaks--despite some wayward ways in the final eighth of a mile--to give trainer Mark Casse a fourth victory in the first leg of the Canadian Filly Triple Crown and first since Barber's Lexie Lou (Sligo Bay {Ire}) scored in 2014. In partnership with Michael Langlois, Barber also won Sunday's Plate Trial S. with Paramount Prince (Society's Chairman). With...