Gulfstream Park: Conquest Titan bound for Holy Bull

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The field for the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Jan. 25, the first major test for Kentucky Derby hopefuls here this winter, continues to take shape, with one of the starters likely to be Conquest Titan, a son of Birdstone who closed his 2-year-old campaign with an eye-catching last-to-first allowance win at Churchill Downs.

Conquest Titan is one of several promising 3-year-olds trainer Mark Casse is looking forward to running later this month. Casse put stakes winner Coastline on a van Friday morning bound for Oaklawn and a start in the Smarty Jones and also is high on the prospects of the maiden Awesome Sky, who could make his local debut here next week.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Conquest Titan, who contested the early pace before finishing last in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, showed a whole new dimension when trying allowance competition for the first time in his 2-year-old finale.

“He’s trained from the get-go like he was a really special horse,” Casse said. “He won a stakes very impressively as a maiden in Canada and worked so well at Churchill Downs I decided to run in the Breeders’ Cup. But his performance that day was really my fault. The track was so speed favoring I thought if we had any chance he needed to be close up, so I had the rider send him away from there and he just doesn’t like that.”

Casse switched riders, tabbing Shaun Bridgmohan, and running styles for Conquest Titan in his next start and was rewarded with a performance that has propelled the colt right into the Holy Bull. Conquest Titan won the allowance race by 1 3/4 lengths over General a Rod.

“I told Shaun to take him back and try to make a big run with him, which is the way we train all our horses, and when he asked him at the half-mile pole the move he made was pretty spectacular,” Casse said. “Of course then you start to wonder if he beat anything, but we felt a lot better after the second-place finisher from that race came back and won the Gulfstream Park Derby.”

Casse also is bullish on Coastline, who won the one-mile Street Sense in a strong field that included the highly regarded Almost Famous. Coastline went postward the 8-5 favorite off that effort in the Delta Downs Jackpot, only to lose all chance when he stumbled at the break.

“He ran early with Almost Famous, put him away, and then opened up in the Street Sense,” Casse said. “The Delta race was over for him at the start. But he’s trained really well since coming down here, and I thought the mile stakes at Hot Spring really suits him.”

Casse also has Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Laugh Track back on the work tab, although he remains uncertain where he might launch his 2014 campaign. Laugh Track rallied from far back to fall a neck shy of catching Secret Circle in the Sprint. He came back four weeks later to finish a troubled ninth under Mike Smith in the Cigar Mile.

[Clocker Reports: Get Mike Welsch’s clocker reports from Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows]

“Laugh Track was running along quite nicely in the Cigar, and when he got to the top of the lane, one horse stumbled and hit Groupie Doll, who came out and clobbered us,” Casse said. “Mike told me he thought he had a big shot before that happened.”

Quasar Power tries turf

Casse will have another of his 3-year-old hopefuls, Quasar Power, in action in Sunday’s $48,750 feature event, carded at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf. Quasar Power will face a group that includes Medal Count, who’ll try turf for the first time after concluding his 2-year-old campaign finishing 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Quasar Power, a son of Tale of the Cat, made all three of his juvenile starts at Woodbine, where he rallied to win an off-the-turf maiden race at second asking.

“He broke his maiden impressively but he sure didn’t run much in his last start, so I don’t know what to think about him,” Casse said. “The pedigree says he should like the turf, but this race is an experiment for sure.”