Casse puts duo in position to bounce back in Shenandoah, Turf Dash
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Trainer Mark Casse is entering two 3-year-old turf sprinters in stakes on Saturday at Colonial Downs in the hopes of rediscovering old form. Final Accord will finally get another shot at six furlongs in the $100,000 Shenandoah Stakes, while Ewing will try to pull himself together in the $100,000 Colonial Turf Dash.
While both won a graded stakes in their second starts as juveniles, Final Accord has become the more steady stakes contender. Since winning the Grade 3, six-furlong Matron at Aqueduct last October, however, she has been forced to run at either 5 1/2 furlongs or a mile.
“I think she’s more of a three-quarter, seven-eighths kind of horse, but they’re not easy to find,” Casse said. “But we found one on Saturday, so this should be right in her wheelhouse.”
In May, Final Accord earned her best result of the year when she finished second in the $150,000 Penn Oaks at Penn National. Despite finishing a distant sixth in the $275,000 Tepin at Churchill Downs in June, she is the 5-2 morning-line favorite on Saturday.
While his stablemate is landing in a comfortable spot, Ewing will enter the Colonial Turf Dash with far more to prove. Once regarded as one of the best juveniles in the country after winning the Grade 2 Saratoga Special last August, he has not been the same since returning from knee surgery, losing two starts as a 3-year-old by a combined 19 1/4 lengths.
“I’m hoping for him to wake up a little bit,” Casse said. “I really don’t know what to think of how he’ll perform, to be honest.”
Casse switched the Knicks Go colt to the turf for the Grade 3 Quick Call at Saratoga last month, but the surface change made no difference. The Colonial Turf Dash will be his first chance to string together starts without a layoff since last summer.
With rain in the forecast this week in Virginia, Casse said he is prepared to give both Ewing and Final Accord a chance if their races are moved to a wet track. Sonny Leon will ride both horses.
Trainer Michael Trombetta also has a horse in each six-furlong turf sprint. Doubting Thomas, a state-restricted stakes winner at Colonial last year, is the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the Colonial Turf Dash’s field of 10 3-year-olds. He returned to Virginia last month and ran a close second in a $74,000 allowance.
“He has a couple races under his belt now, and I think sometimes it takes two or three races for him to reach top form again,” Trombetta said. “So I’m looking forward to him.”
In the Shenandoah, Trombetta entered Hark Theangelssing, the 7-2 third choice in the field of nine 3-year-old fillies. She won the $100,000 Stormy Blues at Laurel in June and will drop in class after finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Coronation Cup at Saratoga last month.
Trainer Joe Orseno said he expects a stronger front-running effort from Spinelli in the Shenandoah. The filly earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure in a first-level allowance on synthetic at Gulfstream Park in June, but she was late to break in the $100,000 Monmouth County last month and had to settle for second.
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