Churchill: Casse pulls off two remarkable feats
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s difficult to say which feat is more extraordinary: winning Churchill Downs training titles 28 years apart or winning five stakes in less than 24 hours.
Mark Casse pulled off both last weekend.
“I feel like I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” Casse said this week after traveling from Toronto to his home in Ocala, Fla. “I truly appreciate how fortunate we are. We train for exceptional people who’ve given us exceptional horses.”
Casse was 27 when he was the leading trainer at the 1988 Churchill spring meet. He clinched his second Churchill title last Saturday night when he swept back-to-back stakes for 2-year-olds, the Grade 3 Bashford Manor with Classic Empire and the Debutante with Pretty City Dancer. Casse finished the 38-day spring meet with 21 winners, two more than Mike Maker.
Asked if he knew of anyone ever winning training titles so far apart – at any track, with no titles in between – Casse stammered.
“No,” he finally said, then laughing: “I guess it shows I’m not an overnight sensation.”
Classic Empire and Pretty City Dancer were followed Sunday by World Approval (Grade 1 United Nations) at Monmouth and Lexie Lou (Grade 2 Dance Smartly) and Conquest Enforcer (Charlie Barley) at Woodbine.
“It was almost surreal,” he said.
Casse, a 55-year-old father of seven, said he had been content for years to use Woodbine and Ocala as his main bases. That circuit worked quite well, as he has been voted the prestigious Sovereign Award for top trainer in Canada seven times.
But prompted by his son and assistant, Norman, and shrinking purses at Woodbine due to government reorganization of gambling in Ontario province, Casse began aggressively branching out several years ago. Churchill is now a primary base from April to November, with Norman, 32, calling many of the shots.
“I’d guess you could say I’m the head coach and Norman is one of my quarterbacks,” said Casse.
Last year, Casse achieved career highs with 159 wins and $13.7 million in stable earnings. He’s on course to surpass those totals in 2016: Into this week, the stable had earned $7.2 million, fourth in the North American standings, while winning 100 races, 15 of them graded stakes.
Norman Casse will head soon to Saratoga to oversee a full barn, while David Carroll will move over from Keeneland to oversee a full string at Churchill. Mark Casse said his stable will be more active this summer at Ellis Park than it ever has.
Meanwhile, Casse and owner Robert Masterson are considering the Grade 2 Ballston Spa on the Aug. 27 Travers card at Saratoga for their superstar turf mare, Tepin. The 5-year-old mare recently returned to Churchill after winning the Group 1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot in England.
“She thrives on racing, and we’re going to have a hard time holding her on the ground,” said Casse. “We’d still like to run in the Woodbine Mile three weeks later [Sept. 17], and then it’d be seven weeks to the Breeders’ Cup [Mile on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita], so I don’t know. I’d rather not go that long between races with her. There’s the Shadwell at Keeneland [on Oct. 8], but then maybe we’d be asking too much of her if she ran in all of them. It’s all something we’re thinking over.”