Mark Casse

Norm Casse lived in Louisville throughout most of his childhood, but one spring, he spent a few months in Ocala with his father. Norm was responsible for getting himself up and out the door for school each morning while his dad was busy at the training center. One morning, as Kentucky Oaks day dawned, Norm's alarm never rang. It was well into the morning before Mark Casse burst into his son's room in a panic. "Norman, why aren't you at school?" he cried. [Elite_video_player id="2" html5videos_hd="https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/822062086/rendition/540p/file.mp4?loc=external&signature=3c1cd569582ec02225920fa7b00321389eb3f5da89aa9f31b92dbb2f1307047a" html5videos_videoThumbnails_jpg="" html5videos_title="Norm Casse on...

Moira (Ghostzapper), dominant winner against males in last year's Queen's Plate S., took home both Horse of the Year and Champion 3-Year-Old honors at the 48th Annual Sovereign Awards ceremony hosted by the Jockey Club of Canada on Thursday. The evening began with a commemoration of the club's 50th anniversary and recognition of the founding members from 1973. The top three finalists in each category are determined by the online ballots of the Jockey Club of Canada's voters. The media category award finalists were determined by professionals within the industry...

It continues to be a strange year on the road to the GI Kentucky Oaks. It's been a division where no one seemed ready to step to the front and become a clear leader of the group. That, sort of, changed Sunday in the GIII Santa Ysabel S. Sunday at Santa Anita. Faiza (Girvin) stayed undefeated in four starts with a 2 1/4-length win and, under normal circumstances, would have gone to No. 1 on this list. But the filly, who is trained by Bob Baffert and owned by Michael...

Saturday's running of the GII Risen Star S. at Fair Grounds seems unlikely to produce a colt of the caliber of the race's namesake. In 1988, Risen Star captivated New Orleans as the hometown horse owned by charismatic connections, parlaying a win in the then-GIII Louisiana Derby to Grade I scores in both the Preakness S. and Belmont S. before being voted 3-year-old champion colt at year's end. But $29.40 upset winner Angel of Empire (Classic Empire) at least fits the bill as a hard-trying underdog you can root for....

As the field turned for home in Saturday's Suncoast S. at Tampa Bay Downs, Dreaming of Snow (Jess's Dream), trained by Gerald Bennett, had the lead, but it sure looked like she'd never hold on. It wasn't just that she was 38-1 and had been pressed most of the way, it was who was chasing her, monsters from the stables of super trainers Mark Casse and Todd Pletcher in Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief) and Julia Shining (Curlin). Could a horse from the barn of a 78-year-old claiming trainer who had...

Since breaking her maiden at Colonial Downs last September, Dreaming of Snow has been a Florida girl, contesting three straight at Tampa Bay Downs including an 8 1/2-length win against optional claimers two starts back Dec. 17. Fourth in the Gasparilla S. Jan. 14 behind a pair ofrivals she faced Saturday, the $60,000 OBS March grad was let go as an unconvincing 38-1 shot against newly crowned Eclipse champion Wonder Wheel and GII Demoiselle S. winner Julia Shining. Undeterred by the falling rain and hustled to the front after brief...

LEXINGTON, KY-The Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale went through its supplemental catalogue and into its addendum to finally find its top-priced offering when Lemieux (Nyquist) sold to Nice Guys Stable for $400,000 just hips before the auction concluded its two-day run Tuesday in Lexington with steady results. "We saw a continuation of the marketplace that we experienced yesterday and that we saw in January and we saw in November, October, September and July," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. said at the sale's close Tuesday. "I think it's a very fair marketplace....

Every morning at 8:30 sharp, 'The Wonder Wheel Show' takes over Casse Training Center in Ocala. Just after the break, the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies champion and newly crowned Eclipse Award winner takes to a freshly groomed track and flies through her paces solo before regular training resumes. "She gets her own set," trainer Mark Casse said with a grin. "She's special." Casse's smile grew even wider Monday morning as he watched Wonder Wheel in action. After a day off on Sunday, the daughter of Into Mischief was enthusiastic...

Breeders' Cup Juvenile races produced both the 2-year-old filly and colt champions, with Wonder Wheel taking the filly statue and Forte leading the colts. WONDER WHEEL Each spring, as most trainers get their promising 2-year-olds ready to begin their careers, invariably one or two (or maybe more, depending on the conditioner) of these youngsters stand out. And just as invariably, these trainers hold their breath and cross everything they can cross to help ensure everything goes right enough that the end result--a Breeders' Cup win--produces the ultimate result--the Eclipse Award....

A colt by Tapit (hip 42) attracted the highest bid of $225,000 during Tuesday's open session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Winter Mixed and Horses of Racing Age Sale when New York conditioner Dave Cannizzo outlasted trainer Mark Casse for the short yearling, who was consigned by Stuart Morris. "He's the only horse I bid on today," Cannizzo said Tuesday afternoon. "He was a standout. It's what we came here to do and we did it. We got in a little dogfight with Mark Casse, but we won the...

Over the last few months, I have read and heard numerous concerns about HISA's involvement in the thoroughbred industry. Purported issues range from, "we don't need the government in our business" to, "these new rules are too burdensome," to "they should have asked horsemen to be involved in the rulemaking." I believe most of those complaints come from a place of misunderstanding about what HISA is trying to accomplish and also how imperative it is to our livelihood that we have a centralized set of rules. As someone fortunate enough...

Eclipse and Sovereign Award winner Kazushi Kimura earned his second consecutive Woodbine jockey crown at the recently concluded Woodbine Thoroughbred meet with 152 wins. Overall his mounts earned $8.9 million (CDN). Born in Hokkaido, Japan, Kimura joined the Woodbine jockey colony as a 19-year-old apprentice in 2018. He finished his first Woodbine campaign sixth in the standings with 89 wins and his mounts totaled more than $2.3 million in earnings which earned him an Eclipse Award as North America's outstanding apprentice jockey. He also took home the Sovereign Award as...