Casse plans to run just one in stacked Fourstardave
:quality(75))
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mark Casse entered two horses in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Fourstardave Stakes at Saratoga, but Classic Q and Mi Bago share a couple of things in common that will likely lead to only one participating in the race.
Both Classic Q, a filly, and Mi Bago, a gelding, like to race on the front end. Also, both like firm turf, and there is rain in the forecast on multiple days this week in Saratoga.
“They both need really hard turf and I don’t think they’re going to get it,” Casse said Monday. “Anything’s possible, but I only plan on running one. I haven’t decided which one.”
Seven were entered for the Fourstardave, including Deterministic and Laygnos, both of whom bring five-race winning streaks into the race, which offers a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keenland in the fall.
Classic Q and Mi Bago have both won their last two starts. One of the reasons Casse thought about the Fourstardave for Classic Q is that it’s a good lead-in to the Grade 2, $1.5 million Music City Stakes at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 5. Classic Q ran fourth in that race last year “with a horror trip,” Casse said.
Classic Q and Mi Bago are both 2 for 3 over Saratoga’s turf course. Mi Bago won the Kingston for New York-breds and then dead-heated with Zulu Kingdom in the Grade 3 Kelso. Zulu Kingdom is also in the Fourstardave. Classic Q won the Wild Applause here last year and the Grade 1 Just a Game this year.
Deterministic won last year’s Fourstardave and had physical issues that sidelined him the rest of the year. He has gone 2 for 2 this year, with victories in the Grade 3 Fort Marcy and Grade 1 Manhattan.
Lagynos finished seventh in last year’s Fourstardave. He has won 6 of 9 since, including the Grade 2 Wise Dan at Churchill in his most recent start, his fifth straight graded stakes victory.
Rhetorical, the two-time Grade 1-winning New York-bred, and Capitol Hill, fourth in the Grade 3 Kelso last out, complete a stacked field.
The Fourstardave goes as race 10 on a 14-race Whitney Day card that begins at 11:45 a.m., with last post scheduled for 7:48 p.m.