Breeders' Cup: Casse juveniles won't breeze at Santa Anita

ARCADIA, Calif. – In the week leading up to a big event such as the Breeders’ Cup, a lot of emphasis is put on morning workouts. Trainer Mark Casse, however, believes workouts can be overrated. In the cases of the 2-year-olds My Conquestadory (Juvenile Fillies Turf) and Conquest Titan (Juvenile), neither will have an official work the week before their Breeders’ Cup engagements.

“Most of the time, breezing, I think it’s overrated, for one thing,” Casse said Monday from Florida. “As long as they’re happy and healthy and training good.”

Both horses worked Oct. 21 at Churchill Downs. Casse said the timing of the flights from Kentucky to California interfered with his workout schedule. Casse’s horses shipped Saturday, jogged at Santa Anita on Sunday, and galloped Monday. Casse could have breezed them Monday at Churchill and flown Tuesday from Kentucky to California if he desired.

“I didn’t think they needed it so much,” Casse said. “I’ve had a lot of luck doing it this way. A lot of times, the last breeze is just to let them stretch their legs a little bit, scope them, make sure they’re happy and healthy. I can do that without breezing them. I can let them pick it up a little bit.”

Though My Conquestadory’s victory in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland earned her a fees-paid berth in Saturday’s $2 million Juvenile Fillies on dirt, Casse elected to run her in Friday’s $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf. My Conquestadory won the Grade 2 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on turf as a first-time starter before coming back three weeks later and overcoming trouble to capture the Alcibiades on Keeneland’s Polytrack synthetic surface.

“At some point in time, we would like to try her on the dirt,” Casse said. “She’s done so little training on the dirt. Besides, when she was broke, she never trained on the dirt. It wouldn’t be fair to her.”

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Conquest Titan finished fourth in his lone start on dirt, a sprint race at Churchill Downs in June from which he emerged a little sick. Subsequently, he won the Swynford Stakes over Woodbine’s Polytrack before finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland.

Casse said was considering waiting for the Delta Downs Jackpot or the Kentucky Jockey Club to run Conquest Titan, but the way the horse trained on dirt Oct. 21 at Churchill – working five furlongs in 1:00.80 with the millionaire Uncaptured – prompted him to try the Juvenile.

“We worked him with Uncaptured, who’s a pretty good horse, and he gave Uncaptured all he wanted with ease,” Casse said. “Eurico [Rosa Da Silva] came down to work the filly, and he said, ‘This is a different horse on the dirt,’ so why not? We’re going with the Wayne Lukas theory: ‘If you’re not in it, you can’t win it.’ And he’s won a lot of them.”