Casse can leave meet with one beautiful memory in Spinaway

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse’s 2020 Saratoga meet may have been foreshadowed when his induction ceremony into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame had to be postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On track, Casse’s Saratoga meet was summed up by the opening-day Schuylerville, when his Beautiful Memories, the odds-on favorite for the Grade 3 race, stumbled out of the gate and was pulled up at the quarter pole by jockey Jose Ortiz. Meanwhile, Make Mischief, his other entrant, finished second.

That’s pretty much the way the rest of the meet has gone for Casse, who entered the final three days of the season with 1 win and 10 seconds from 37 starters after Make Mischief finished second in Friday’s $150,000 Seeking the Ante Stakes for New York breds.

Casse can still salvage the meet when he sends out Beautiful Memories as the likely favorite in Sunday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Spinaway Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at seven furlongs.

“As much as it hasn’t gone as well as it might have, it’s been far from disastrous,” said Casse, who noted that he has four seconds in Grade 1 stakes.

But, Casse admitted, a victory by Beautiful Memories “would help.”

“It would certainly make me look forward to next year,” he said.

Beautiful Memories was sent off the 1-2 favorite in the Schuylerville based on her 10-length maiden score at 2-5 at Churchill Downs on May 28. After stumbling at the start in the Schuylerville, Beautiful Memories wasn’t traveling satisfactorily to Ortiz, who pulled her up at the quarter pole.

“She did nick herself a little bit. She didn’t need stitches,” Casse said.

In subsequent training, Casse made sure Beautiful Memories worked out of the starting gate.

“That went very well,” Casse said.

Beautiful Memories will break from post 5 in the six-horse field with Ortiz back aboard.

The Spinaway did not come up particularly strong. Guana Cay is a maiden, but she is certainly in with a chance. After finishing third on turf in her debut, Guana Cay ran against males in a 5 1/2-furlong dirt race here, finishing second to the impressive Mutasaabeq.

Trainer Wesley Ward said he ran Guana Cay against boys because he wasn’t sure a maiden race for fillies would fill. He couldn’t scratch out of the boys race when the filly race did go.

Though Guana Cay has a turf pedigree, Ward said, “She ran average on the grass but is working like a tiger on the dirt.”

Irad Ortiz Jr. rides from post 6.

Trainer Tim Hamm won the Schuylerville with Dayoutoftheoffice, but is pointing that one to the Alcibaides at Keeneland. He has shipped in the Ohio-bred Esplanande, who is 3 for 3, including two stakes wins against Ohio-bred males at Belterra and Thistledown.

“She’s done nothing wrong, the question is can she do it when the class is turned up,” Hamm said. “You don’t know till you try.”

Completing the field are Vequist, beaten a nose in her debut going 4 1/2 furlongs at Parx; Lady Lilly, a debut winner in an average time for Steve Asmussen; and Irish Constitution, a debut winner here on July 24.

The Spinaway goes as race 9 on a 12-race card that begins at 12:45 p.m.