Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint: Holding Gold has been a puzzle

There’s a saying around the barn of trainer Mark Casse that some horses have too much talent not to be good at something. The trick is figuring out their niche.

Solving that puzzle helped take Holding Gold from a listed stakes-level horse in 2016 to a contender for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

The 4-year-old Lonhro gelding ran well for Casse and owner Charlotte Weber of Live Oak Plantation last year, winning the Quick Call Stakes at Saratoga, but the trainer was left at the end of his campaign still trying to fully figure him out.

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“I ran him against older horses, and he ran well, but they were just a little too much for him,” Casse said. “We sent him home and we gelded him, and he came back as a 4-year-old a bigger and better horse.

The approach was similar to one taken with World Approval, a multiple Grade 1 winner also owned by Weber.

“I told Ms. Weber, ‘He can’t play with the older boys now. Let’s give him some time to grow up,’ and it worked for him.”

The changes were quickly apparent when Holding Gold returned for his 2017 campaign, which started in April with a win in the Grade 2 Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland. He earned his first triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure that day and confirmed Casse’s suspicion that the shorter end of the turf sprint spectrum was where he fit.

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Casse said Holding Gold’s strong, compact build was a factor in the decision to try him especially short, comparing his frame to that of Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson. This year’s Turf Sprint being held at five furlongs gave the trainer a clear target at the end of the year.

Part of Holding Gold’s improvement this season was due to Casse’s ability to pick up on his form patterns. His last start was a soft-going, traffic-laden sixth-place effort in the Grade 3 Turf Monster Handicap at Parx Racing, the gelding’s second start after a brief layoff. After the race, Casse decided to give Holding Gold a full tank heading into the Breeders’ Cup and train up to the Turf Sprint, which is likely to be contested over firm ground at Del Mar.

“We don’t know whether it’s the soft turf or when he runs close together, but he tends to throw kind of a dull effort at you, and that’s why we’re not going to run him again,” Casse said. “We had flirted with the idea of running him back at Keeneland, but we’re going to go for the gusto and go straight to the Breeders’ Cup.”

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