Casse cross-enters three fillies in two stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse entered the fillies Ticker Tape Home, Forever Dixie, and Firing Bullets in both of Saturday’s seven-furlong 2-year-old stakes at Woodbine – the $125,000 Display and the $125,000 Glorious Song for fillies.

Ticker Tape Home has made all four of her starts on the grass. After ending up second here in her July 2 debut, she missed the board twice at Saratoga before graduating by 9 3/4 lengths with an 84 Beyer Speed Figure here Oct. 8.

“The first time I ran her at Saratoga, a horse bolted and almost knocked her down going into the first turn,” Casse recalled. “We threw that race out. She had a rough trip again when I ran her towards the end of the meet. She started coming around, and as soon as she got back to Toronto, [assistant] David Adams said this is a different horse. We were really confident going into the last race, and she ran that way. She’s trained really well over the Tapeta.”

Forever Dixie, a daughter of Quality Road and Grade 3 winner Dixie Strike, also competed on the Saratoga sod before landing a seven-furlong maiden special on the Tapeta here Oct. 1.

“We had some issues with her,” Casse said. “She had a rough trip in her first start at Saratoga. We brought her back to Woodbine. Patrick Husbands started breezing her and said she’s as good as her mother. I thought her [Woodbine] race was pretty good because he had to check her hard on the backside. She still won and beat Renegade Rebel, who came back and won impressively. I think that race is better than it looks.”

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Casse said he plans on running Ticker Tape Home and Forever Dixie in separate races Saturday.

“Some of it will depend on how they draw,” Casse explained.

Firing Bullets finished far up the track at first asking on the dirt at Saratoga before graduating in the Woodbine Cares Stakes on Oct. 8 on the inner turf.

“If you see me take them to Saratoga, it means that they’re training good and I like them,” Casse pointed out.

Casse also entered Woodbine Cares runner-up Fearless Angel and Play the Music in the 14-horse Glorious Song. He supplemented Alpha Meister to the Display, which drew a field of eight.

The good-looking debut winner Hal could make some noise in the Display. From the first crop of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Accelerate, Hal notched his seven-furlong debut with a 71 Beyer on Oct. 2 for trainer Darwin Banach.

“We were very pleased, but not surprised,” Banach said. “He had been training that way in the morning, where he just gallops along and follows everybody, sits there and waits, and when you say let’s go, he seems to find another gear.

“The earlier works were just okay, but once we started going a little longer is when he really started to sparkle.”

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