Casse has strength in numbers on three-stakes day

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – There are numerous storylines surrounding Saturday’s three 2-year-old stakes at Woodbine.

Will trainer Mark Casse fill out the trifecta in the $250,000 Coronation Futurity? Can Woodbine’s fastest worker Ironstone keep his roll going in the $125,000 Display? Will the $125,000 Glorious Song yield another future star filly?

Casse sends out the top two finishers in the Oct. 10 Cup and Saucer Stakes, God of Love and Fast Feet, in the 1 1/8-mile Coronation for Canadian-breds. God of Love relished the yielding turf in the $251,200 Cup and Saucer, closing from ninth to beat front-running Fast Feet by 1 3/4 lengths.

“We’ve always been pretty high on God of Love,” Casse said. “He’d trained really well on the synthetic. I wasn’t sure how he would ‘grass.’ I was proud of [Fast Feet]. He hung in there.

“When you get that type of going, you never know how they’re going to respond. There are bigger question marks with him going 1 1/8 miles on Tapeta than with God of Love. I think it’s right in God of Love’s wheelhouse.”

Casse supplemented Lament, who graduated second time out in a mile and 70-yard maiden special Oct. 16.

:: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures.

Among the others entered in the 14-horse field are debut winner The Minkster and Cup and Saucer third-place finisher Stronger Together.

Ironstone should be favored among a group of seven in the seven-furlong Display, which was won by the future Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston in 2019.

Trained by Willy Armata, the rapid Ironstone graduated on Aug. 29 with the addition of Lasix in the 6 1/2-furlong Simcoe Stakes, earning an 80 Beyer Speed Figure. Six days after breezing five-eighths in 57.60 on Oct. 2, he won another restricted stakes, the 5 1/2-furlong Clarendon, by six lengths with an 88 Beyer.

Last Saturday, Ironstone breezed a half-mile in 46.20 under jockey Ademar Santos, who took him wide on the turn in an apparent attempt to slow him down. The colt galloped out five-eighths in a snappy 59.80.

If Ironstone gets pressure up front, it could set the table for the Casse-trained Twenty Four Mamba, who has been idle since finishing a distant fourth in the Aug. 21 Soaring Free Stakes on turf.

“He’s coming off a layoff because there wasn’t really anything for him,” Casse said. “I didn’t want to run him on the grass in the Summer.”

Casse entered Aubrieta and Fulminate in the seven-furlong Glorious Song, which he’s won a record nine times, including last year with the future graded-stakes performer Souper Sensational.

Aubrieta won her debut on Sept. 11 before ending up second after bobbling at the break from post 1 in another 5 1/2-furlong Tapeta sprint, the restricted Shady Well Stakes.

“The one-hole was a killer, but she ran well,” said Casse, who was disappointed that she drew the rail again on Saturday.

The speedy Fulminate has made all three of her starts on the grass, winning at first asking at Gulfstream Park before missing the board in two subsequent stakes.

“She’s training really well on Tapeta,” Casse noted.

The Glorious Song drew six others, including Marie MacKay, the gate-to-wire winner of the Shady Well.