Classic Empire back to Ocala, still targeting Pennsylvania Derby

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Classic Empire is starting over. Again.

For the second time this year, trainer Mark Casse has shipped Classic Empire – last year’s 2-year-old champion – to Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala, Fla., with hopes of preparing him for success in a Grade 1 race.

On Monday at Saratoga, Classic Empire pulled himself up about a sixteenth of a mile into a scheduled workout over the Oklahoma training track. By Monday afternoon, Casse had Classic Empire on a van headed to Winding Oaks where the horse was prepared for the start of his career and where he went during the late winter and early spring to prepare for the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, which he won. Casse is hoping the change of scenery will help Classic Empire make the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 23.

“I just figure I got to get him going quick,” Casse said Wednesday morning. “We went back to basics – where we got the Arkansas Derby.”

In March, after Classic Empire balked while training at Palm Meadows, a training center in south Florida, Casse shipped Classic Empire to Winding Oaks where he put in four workouts before going to Oaklawn Park and winning the Arkansas Derby.

Casse said that Classic Empire’s back is still bugging him and the “lady that does the best with his back is in Ocala.”

“He trained good this morning, but his back was sore,” Casse said. “We’re taking him back to where we’ve been successful with him, plus we can monitor his back there a little easier.”

Classic Empire, who is owned by John Oxley, has not raced since getting beat a head by Cloud Computing in the Preakness, which followed a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. Classic Empire was scratched from the Belmont Stakes on June 10 due to a foot abscess.

Classic Empire has not worked since June 2 at Churchill Downs.

Casse said he is hopeful that Classic Empire can have a workout before or over this weekend. If so, and his back does not act up, then there is still a chance the colt could make the Pennsylvania Derby, Casse believes.

“We need everything to go right from this point, there’s no question,” Casse said. “I haven’t given up.”