Casse loaded with talented fillies

Trainer Mark Casse has some sorting to do with an excellent group of 2-year-old fillies.

Road to Victory won the Grade 2 Golden Rod on Saturday at Churchill Downs, adding to the strong roster of young female talent in the far-reaching Casse string. Road to Victory is headed for Florida, with the Gulfstream Oaks and the Kentucky Oaks atop the list of her 2018 targets. Wonder Gadot, a troubled sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, ships from Florida to New York for the Demoiselle Stakes this Saturday at Aqueduct.

Then there’s Win the War, the War Front filly whose 11 1/4-length victory Nov. 4 in the Glorious Song Stakes at Woodbine produced a 94 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest figure by a 2-year-old filly in North America this year. Miss Mo Momentum, a 3 3/4-length winner (75 Beyer) of a Nov. 16 Churchill Downs allowance race could go to the Starlet Stakes in California, but also could wind up at Fair Grounds.

The Fair Grounds series definitely is in the cards for still another talented Casse filly, Heavenly Love, whose grand showing winning the Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland was followed by a total clunker in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. The 7-2 second choice in the Juvenile Fillies, Heavenly Love came under a drive before even getting to the race’s second turn, and spun her wheels to an 11th-place finish. Heavenly Love broke from the rail and was pinned down on the inside over a Del Mar racing surface strongly biased toward outside paths.

“After watching the two days of racing, it was just brutal down inside,” Casse said. “That’s all we can come up for with her. Her race was too bad to be real.”

Heavenly Love will have her first post-Breeders’ Cup work during the next few days at the Casse training center in Ocala, Fla., and will ship shortly thereafter to Fair Grounds with the Jan. 13 Silverbulletday Stakes as her target.

Also headed to Fair Grounds this winter is Holding Gold, who finished seventh but was beaten less than two lengths in the BC Turf Sprint. Holding Gold is being pointed to the Feb. 17 Colonel Power Stakes, a prep for an intended start in the $1 million Al Quoz Sprint on the Dubai World Cup card.

Holding Gold is one of three or four horses Casse has pointed to Dubai, a group that includes the Breeders’ Cup Mile winner World Approval, who will prep for the $6 million Dubai Turf in the Feb. 10 Tampa Bay Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. Casse has circled the Godolphin Mile for BC Dirt Mile third-place finisher Awesome Slew, who will prep in the Hal’s Hope at Gulfstream, and also is considering Flashaway for the Al Quoz Sprint.