Brown, Casse meet again, this time with turf colts
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It may not be as significant as when they sent out the protagonists in the Acorn and Phipps last Friday at Saratoga, but trainers Mark Casse and Chad Brown seem to have the two top contenders in a first-level turf allowance Friday at Aqueduct.
In the one-mile race for 3-year-olds, Casse sends out Voodoo Doll, who is 2 for 2 sprinting. Meanwhile, Brown brings Capital Partner back to the races after he went 1 for 3 as a juvenile in 2025.
Last Friday, Casse got the better of Brown, winning the Grade 1 Acorn with Counting Stars and the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps with Nitrogen. Brown finished second in both races with Always a Runner in the Acorn and Fully Subscribed, who dead-heated for second in the Phipps.
Voodoo Doll, by Vekoma, won his debut last November sprinting over Woodbine’s Tapeta. He didn’t race again until May, when he won a turf sprint at Aqueduct by one length.
His recent training on dirt at Saratoga has Casse getting excited for this colt’s future.
“I’m beginning to really like him, I’m thinking he may end up being a pretty decent horse,” said Casse, who trains Voodoo Doll for D. J. Stable. “I thought his last race was pretty impressive. This horse trains on the dirt like I’ve got to run him on the dirt somewhere.”
Two works back, Voodoo Doll was going easier of a pair when matched with Grade 3 stakes winner Silent Tactic.
Edgard Zayas rides Voodoo Doll from the rail.
Capital Partner, a Great Britain-bred son of Kingman owned by Klaravich Stables, began his career with a debut victory at Saratoga last August. He then disappointed in a pair of graded stakes to end his campaign. This will be Capital Partner’s first start since he ran sixth in the Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes last October.
“He started off really well in his debut, then I lost him mentally,” Brown said. “He started pulling in the mornings and in the afternoons and became extremely unsettled. I gave him some time to get over that and turned him out a little bit and cleared his head. He’s come back a total gentleman in the morning, so we’ll see if that translates to the afternoon.”
Flavien Prat rides Capital Partner from post 4.
Print and Woods finished second and fourth, respectively, behind the Brown-trained Arizona Territory in this same condition on May 9. Print, trained by Robert Ribaudo, had a win on dirt in April and has run his three best with the addition of Lasix.
Woods looked to be getting a good trip in that May 9 race before fading to fourth. Trainer Todd Pletcher will add blinkers to his equipment on Friday.
Madagascar won a claiming race on turf on May 23 and was claimed by Ilkay Kantarmaci. Tartabull, Tiz Trouble, and Chatyon complete the field on turf. Gulfy is entered to run only if the race is transferred to the main track.
Earlier on the card, several graded stakes competitors are returning off varying degrees of layoffs in a conditioned allowance scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf. Silvology, trained by Shug McGaughey, makes her first start since a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Sheepshead Bay in May 2025. Silvology has fared better at distances beyond this 1 1/16 miles.
Opulent Restraint, third in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Keeneland in October when trained by Brown, will make her first start for Bill Mott. At 2, Opulent Restraint won the Chelsey Flower Stakes at Aqueduct. At 3, she finished third, beaten three-quarters of a length in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks.
Brown has two in the race, including Peak Hype, who won an allowance race here last October and finished her 3-year-old campaign with a fourth in the Grade 3 Pebbles last Nov. 23. Brown also sends out Growth Trajectory, an allowance winner last November who ran sixth in an overnight handicap over Gulfstream’s Tapeta track in January.
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