Five trainers you’ll be hearing about

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There are some new kids in town this summer at Saratoga, and it won’t take long to find out if everybody will be talking about them.

Trainers Mark Casse, Brian Lynch, Eddie Plesa, Joe Sharp, and Keith Desormeaux will be based at Saratoga this summer. Casse and Plesa are not necessarily new to the Spa, having had strings here before. But Casse has not had horses at Saratoga since 2012, and Plesa hasn’t been based here since 2005.

Lynch, who up until this year was based in Canada, won two races from 10 starters at Saratoga last summer but set up shop in New York for the first time this spring, going 6 for 37 at Belmont. He will have 10 stalls at Saratoga and keep the remainder of his string at Belmont.

Sharp was the Saratoga-based assistant to Mike Maker at this time last summer before going out on his own at the conclusion of the Saratoga meet. Desormeaux came to Saratoga primarily because of Texas Red, the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, whom he plans to run in the Jim Dandy and Travers stakes. But Desormeaux brought a few more horses.

Casse won only three races from 40 starters at Saratoga from 2010-12. Last summer, he had a string of 40 at Del Mar due primarily to that track’s synthetic surface – the same surface at his other base, Woodbine. Del Mar returned to dirt this year.

Asked if he learned anything from those experiences, Casse said, “It’s almost impossible to come off the synthetic and win on dirt at Saratoga.”

Toward that end, Casse said he sent a lot of his young horses to Keeneland this spring to train over the dirt there.

Casse’s stable has never been stronger, buoyed by owners Conquest Stables, Charlotte Weber and John Oxley.

Casse will be a significant player in the stakes action early in the meet. He’ll send out Mississippi Delta in Friday’s Grade 2 Lake George, Tepin in Saturday’s Grade 1 Diana, and Conquest Eclipse in Sunday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks. Noble Bird, the winner of the Grade 1 Stephen Foster, is targeting the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 8.

“Hopefully, we’re as excited when we leave as when we come,” Casse said.

Casse will have plenty of 2-year-olds to run, including Zero Hour, a son of Bernardini who at $1.4 million was the sales-topper at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March auction; Conquest Big E, a $700,000 son of Tapit; Conquest Windycity, whose dam is a half-sister to Saratoga Special winner Jump Start; and Moon King, a Malibu Moon colt whose third dam produced Countess Diana, the champion 2-year-old filly of 1999 who won two graded stakes at Saratoga.

Lynch ended the Belmont meet in good fashion, with 10 of his last 15 runners finishing in the money, including the 2-year-old Hammers Vision, who won a maiden turf race Sunday.

Lynch is high on the 2-year-old Horner Man, a son of Congrats who figures to run early in this meet.

The Lynch-trained Five Iron, who finished third to Wise Dan in the Foustardave last summer, is on the comeback trail from a hind sesamoid issue and worked very well at Belmont last Saturday. Unbridled Juan should be very tough in an allowance race.

Ticking Katie and Sly Tom were both allowance winners at Belmont and should be competitive at Saratoga. Lynch plans to run Clearly Now in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt off his second-place finish in the Belmont Sprint Championship.

“I feel like the barn is starting to hit its stride a little bit,” Lynch said. “The second half of the year is always the better half for me. We develop a lot of horses. It takes a while to get them, but I feel like everything is starting to fall into place.”

Sharp went 5-7-8 from 38 starters at the Belmont spring-summer meet and finished second with four of his last seven starters, including Young Anna Lee in the Lynbrook Stakes. She should be tough in a New York-bred maiden race at this meet.

Sharp could get his meet off to a good start in Friday’s finale with Bracigliano, who just finished second at the same $16,000 claiming condition eight days ago at Belmont.

Shore Runner, an allowance winner at Belmont, runs for Sharp in Monday’s Lucky Coin Stakes. Other runners he has at Saratoga include Bellarmine, Branded Hand, Aztec Brave, and Sandbar.

Sharp has several 2-year-olds, including a half-brother by Lookin At Lucky to the champion Rachel Alexandra, named Dolphus.

“We feel very fortunate in our first year to go up there with 30 or so and to have the quality to play at that level,” said Sharp, whose wife, the former jockey Rosie Napravnik, will be assisting him at the meet.

Plesa has not been stabled at Saratoga since 2005. Since then, he has run just nine horses at the Spa, with his lone win being Itsmyluckyday in last year’s Grade 1 Woodward.

This year, Plesa has taken 10 stalls and likely will start his first horse, Awesome Slew, in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Sanford Stakes for Weber’s Live Oak Plantation.

“Mrs. Weber is up there for the Saratoga meet, and rather than ship back and forth, we decided to have some horses up there,” Plesa said. “Plus, the purses are so good, though it only counts if you win them. The timing is right to go back up there.”

Plesa said he will have a mix of claiming horses, stakes horses, and young horses to run. Souper Colossal, the runner-up in the Long Branch Stakes, will race at Saratoga at some point, possibly in the Curlin Stakes on Aug. 1.

Other horses he plans to run include Scatter Joy, a winner of 7 of 16 starts, and Concealedwithakiss, a recent winner in the claiming ranks.

“I’m going up there to have a good, relaxful time, win some races, and keep people happy,” said Plesa, who said he first was stabled at Saratoga more than 30 years ago. “The racing season hasn’t changed. By that, I mean it’s a destination town where people come to watch races, and it’s nice to be a part of that.”

Desormeaux will dip his toes into Saratoga Springs for the first time. He thinks the Jim Dandy and Travers are good spots for Texas Red, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner who most recently finished second in the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont. But Desormeaux also has horses for other stakes.

Decked Out, who finished second in the Astoria at Belmont on June 4, runs in Friday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes, while Danette, a maiden winner at Belmont on July 2, runs in Sunday’s Coaching Club American Oaks. Dalmore, a 2-year-old son of Travers winner Colonel John, likely will run in a maiden race in the second condition book, while Swipe, the winner of the Summer Juvenile Championship Stakes at Los Alamitos, is being considered for the Saratoga Special on Aug. 16, Desormeaux said.