Casse sends two Grade 1 winners in Distaff Turf Mile
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky – There are two Grade 1 winners in the field for Saturday’s $300,000 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs – La Coronel and Dream Dancing. Both are trained by Mark Casse, both have lost all three of their starts since becoming Grade 1 winners during the latter stages of their 3-year-old campaigns last year, and both are among a bevy of leading contenders in the very competitive Grade 2 event at a mile on the turf.
La Coronel closed her 3-year-old campaign with a wire-to-wire half-length decision in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup last October at Keeneland. She did not start again until finishing second in the Grade 3 Endeavour four months later at Tampa Bay Downs. In two subsequent tries, the daughter of Colonel John was third, beaten less than a length by Fourstar Crook in the Grade 2 Hillsborough at Tampa, and fourth behind Sistercharlie after forcing the pace in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley just three weeks ago at Keeneland. Both Fourstar Crook and Sistercharlie are trained by Chad Brown.
“Although she hasn’t won, it’s not like she hasn’t run well in all three starts this year,” Casse said. “The problem is Chad keeps bringing all those good fillies in from Europe. One thing in our favor is that I really think she likes this course, and there’s also a little rain in the forecast, which wouldn’t hurt my feelings, either.”
Dream Dancing rallied from far back to register a game nose victory last August in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. She ran just once more at 3, finishing seventh behind her stablemate in the QE II Cup at Keeneland. Dream Dancing began the current campaign finishing second in the Grade 3 Marshua’s River at Gulfstream Park and has not started since finishing a wide-running seventh over the same course in the Grade 3 Suwannee River three months ago.
Brown will have another of those “good fillies from Europe” in Dream Awhile in the Distaff Turf Mile. Dream Awhile has improved with every start since shipping to the United States last fall and exits her best performance yet when second in the Suwannee River, beaten a neck by stablemate Elysea’s World.
“She ran a very good race in Florida, nearly won a graded stakes in her first try,” Brown said. “We freshened her a bit after that, but she’s training forwardly, is very sharp, and I’m anxious to get her back to the races.”
Thundering Sky comes off a couple of second-place finishes in Grade 2 races at Santa Anita earlier this season.
“I really like her at a mile, and she’s been training very well over at Keeneland since returning from the West Coast,” trainer George Weaver said. “She just needs to save some ground and find some cover before making her move.”
Other major players in the Distaff Turf Mile include Madam Dancealot, Proctor’s Ledge, and Insta Erma.
Madam Dancealot enters the race off a come-from-behind half-length triumph in the Grade 2 Santa Ana seven weeks earlier at Santa Anita. The multiple graded stakes winner Proctor’s Ledge wheels back just three weeks after finishing a wide-running eighth from a tough post in the Jenny Wiley. The Grade 1-placed Insta Erma finished third last fall in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar.