Delta Downs: Prospective getting break after beating elders in Delta Mile

Coady Photography

The 3-year-old Prospective wins the Delta Mile on Saturday in his first start against older.

Prospective closed out his 3-year-old season Saturday when he defeated older horses in the $150,000 Delta Mile at Delta Downs in Vinton, La. Trainer Mark Casse said the horse is being freshened and after a break will resume training in Florida.

“He’s done for the year,” said Casse, who trains Prospective for John Oxley. “I don’t really see a whole lot for him for the next little while. We’ll give him a little break. But he doesn’t really like breaks.

“The plan is to run again for another year, maybe even run two more years. We’ll see how it goes. I hope to get him over the $1 million mark.”

Prospective pushed his earnings to $706,235 on Saturday, when he won his fifth stakes of the year in the Delta Mile. He was facing older horses for the first time and rallied from off the pace to beat a field that included fellow graded stakes winners Brethren, Hurricane Ike, and Pants On Fire.

“With 3-year-olds, as you get to the latter part of the year, you’re always concerned whether they can play with the older boys, and he proved that was no problem,” Casse said.

Prospective also quickly adapted to his break from racing, which is coming at Casse’s training center in Ocala, Fla.

“I was just admiring him this morning,” Casse said. “He was right outside our house, in a little small paddock eating grass. Most horses, if you did that, they’d go wild. He has so much class, he just walked out there, never ran, never did anything. We get a kick out of him.

“He’s been to eight different tracks this year and when he gets there, he walks off [the van], looks around, and goes into his stall and lies down and takes a nap.”

Prospective’s wins this year included the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby and the Grade 3 Ohio Derby. He also ran 18th in the Kentucky Derby.