Casse looks loaded for bear on Summit of Speed preview card
Trainer Mark Casse has never participated in the Summit of Speed. But if Saturday’s Summit of Speed preview card at Gulfstream Park is any indication, Casse could be a major factor in this year’s marquee event on the summer stakes schedule July 2.
Casse, who kept a full stable at Gulfstream for the first time this year, has horses entered in six of the seven stakes on Saturday’s card. Several of those, including Grande Shores in the $75,000 Parrot Key, Dogwood Trail in the $75,000 Sea Lily, and Awesome Banner in the $75,000 Big Cypress, figure to go off either favored or among the top choices in their respective races.
All three of those horses were transferred into Casse’s barn by owner-breeder Fred Brei this spring.
“I haven’t participated in the Summit of Speed in the past, but it’s one of the things that drew me to south Florida in the summertime,” Casse said.
The six-furlong Parrot Key serves as a prep for the Grade 2 Smile Sprint, a race Grande Shores finished fourth in a year ago. Casse, however, said he wasn’t 100 percent certain Grande Shores will start Saturday.
“Obviously, three-quarters is a touch on the short side for him, and there is another stakes in 10 days that would be a better spot for him,” said Casse.
Grande Shores finished third as the odds-on favorite while making his first start for Casse three weeks ago in the restricted Bull Gator Stakes, a race in which he encountered a ton of trouble.
“Another horse came down on top of him near the fence, and it was ugly,” said Casse. “He got hammered pretty good. He’s the kind of horse that takes a while to get his momentum going, and they just took his momentum right away from him.”
With or without Grande Shores, Requite may prove the horse to beat. The talented but lightly raced Requite won a pair of races here last summer but has not started since finishing second in the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga on Aug. 1. His 3-year-old campaign came to a sudden and premature end due to a foot injury sustained shortly thereafter while training up to the Grade 1 King’s Bishop.
Yourdreamsormine may have benefitted from Grande Shores’s misfortune in the Bull Gator, but he also ran the race of his life that day, drawing off to a convincing three-length victory in his first start since joining trainer Milt Wolfson’s barn several weeks earlier.
Dogwood Trail, who has not hit the board in four starts this season, won the Grade 3 Azalea on the 2015 Summit of Speed card and likely will use the Sea Lily as a prep for the Grade 2 Princess Rooney four weeks down the road.
“They sent her back to the farm for a freshening after her last start, and she’s trained well for us since returning,” said Casse. “Her last few races haven’t been very good, so we’ll see.”
A field of eight older fillies and mares will contest the six-furlong Sea Lily, with Grade 3 winner Best Behavior and the Grade 2-placed Fusaichi Red the other key contenders.
Awesome Banner was the king of the 3-year-old sprinters here this past winter, although even Casse is not sure what to expect when Awesome Banner returns home as the solid favorite in the Big Cypress, a prep for the Grade 3 Carry Back on July 2.
Awesome Banner won the Grade 3 Hutcheson and Grade 2 Swale in impressive fashion last winter, only to prove a major disappointment, finishing far back in both the Fountain of Youth and Tampa Bay Derby, in a failed attempt to stretch his abundant speed around two turns. Awesome Banner was sent to Casse at Churchill Downs shortly thereafter and did not train up to expectations.
“We felt like he didn’t care much for Churchill Downs, so we sent him home,” said Casse. “I watched him work in Ocala last week, and he went extremely well. He’s still a real mystery horse to me. We’ve been looking for answers and haven’t found any, so we’ll run him Saturday and see. If he’s himself, he’s going to win. If not, he won’t.”
One of the few invaders for the Summit of Speed preview card, the Kentucky-based Major League, and recent allowance winner Wildcat Wish may prove the best alternatives should Awesome Banner not be at his best once again.
Casse may also have the likely favorite, the speedy Ballet Diva, in the $75,000 Royal Palm, a prep for the Azalea on July 2. Ballet Diva has not started since winning the Any Limit Stakes on March 15. She could have her hands full off the layoff with the lightly raced Dearest, who suffered her only setback in three starts when third in the Grade 2 Davona Dale on Feb. 27.
There are also three turf stakes on the Summit preview card, the five-furlong Bonita for 3-year-olds, the one-mile Raymond Earl for older horses, and its filly counterpart, the one-mile Amelia Island.