Got Stormy proves her mettle in Fourstardave

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After Got Stormy won the De La Rose Stakes by four lengths on Aug. 3, owner Gary Barber told trainer Mark Casse he wanted him to consider wheeling the filly back in a week to run in the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap.

Barber felt the reward of a Grade 1 victory against males and an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Mile were well worth the risk of running back on short rest as well as paying a $7,500 supplemental fee to run in the race.

“It took nothing out of her,” Barber said of the De La Rose performance. “I said to Mark, 'If she’s well and she’s got the energy, let’s go.’ Him and a few others tried to talk me out of it – the bounce theorists. I could understand if it was a taxing effort, but it wasn’t. I said ‘Mark, we’re going.’ I was coming here with my friends and the rest is history.”

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Got Stormy made history in the Fourstardave not only becoming the first female to win the race but she smashed the course record by running the mile over Saratoga’s Mellon turf course in 1:32.00. Macagone established the course record of 1:33.13 here on Aug. 2.

“As Mark said, she’s the second coming of Tepin,” Barber said.

Tepin, trained by Casse, was the female turf champion of 2015-16 and Breeders’ Cup Mile winner in 2015. She beat males three times over the course of her championship campaigns.

Got Stormy will get the opportunity to face males again in the Woodbine Mile on Sept. 14 and the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 2. The Fourstardave earned Got Stormy a fees-paid berth in the BC Mile.

“I got what we wanted out of it – a Grade 1 and the win and you’re in,” Barber said.

While Casse admitted to being somewhat reluctant about wheeling Got Stormy back in a week he noted that on Wednesday – the only day Got Stormy galloped since the De La Rose – he and his assistant, Jamie Begg looked at each other and agreed “She’s never trained better,” Casse said.

Casse added that Got Stormy’s exercise rider, Martin Rivera, came back after the gallop "and goes 'I’ve never felt her so good.’”

The Fourstardave was run in odd fashion as Gidu, under Manny Franco, streaked out to an 11-length lead after running a half-mile in 44.61 seconds. Got Stormy, ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., was a ground-saving fifth, 14 lengths off the pace.

Entering the far turn, Santana advanced Got Stormy along the inside before tipping out three wide turning for home. Made You Look, the longest price of three horses entered by Chad Brown, overtook a fading Gidu outside the eighth pole. But Got Stormy stormed past Made You Look at the sixteenth pole and galloped home a 2 1/2-length winner. Got Stormy returned $12 as the 5-1 third choice.

“What’s made her so good is her ability to relax,” Casse said. “She is just a magnificent moving horse and she’s gotten bigger and stronger. Right now, she thinks she can beat anybody.”

Santana rode Got Stormy instead of Tyler Gaffalione because Gaffalione had made a commitment to ride Casse’s other horse, March to the Arch. Casse said it would not have been fair to Charlotte Weber, the owner of March to the Arch, to make a change on that horse.

Raging Bull, some 19 lengths out of it after a half-mile, won a three-way photo for second by a head over his stablemate, the mare Uni, who edged March to the Arch by a head to get third. Made You Look was fifth, followed by Hembree, Dr. Edgar, Krampus, Gidu, and Ostilio.

Raging Bull, under Jose Ortiz, rallied from last and had to come very wide to get second.

“He gave me a great run,” Ortiz said. “I felt like I had enough horse to go wide and I did. I ran down everybody but the winner. [Got Stormy] ran a hell of a race.”

Joel Rosario rallied Uni along the inside, but then had to alter course into the three path in midstretch, but Rosario said he had no real excuse.

“Turning for home I had to come out a little bit because I had a horse in front of me,” Rosario said. “I didn’t have much room to keep going inside.”