It's Casse vs. Brown foursome in Diana

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse was the only brave soul to take on Chad Brown when entries were drawn for Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Diana Stakes and will run Fev Rover against a quartet of Brown trainees in a five-horse field for the 1 1/8-mile turf race.

Brown has won six of the last seven runnings of the Diana and won the race seven times overall in his career.

Casse said he’s not worried about who or how many are in the race, choosing to just focus on his own runner.

Fev Rover is a 5-year-old Irish-bred mare who is 2 for 4 in this country. In her lone start this year, Fev Rover won the Grade 2 Nassau Stakes going a mile over yielding Woodbine turf on July 1.

“We got a ton of rain right at the last minute, it was soft, she won in a gallop,” Casse said. “I think she’s more mature now than she used to be.”

Fev Rover is running back on just two weeks’ rest.

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“She got here a couple of days ago. She’s a happy camper,” Casse said. “I’m going with the Allen Jerkens theory, run them when they’re good.”

Javier Castellano will ride Fev Rover.

The Brown quartet is led by In Italian, who won this race last year, the first of what is now four Grade 1 wins for the 5-year-old daughter of Dubawi. In Italian is 2 for 2 this year with powerful front-running scores in the Jenny Wiley and Just a Game, both Grade 1s.

Brown’s three other runners are also coming off stakes wins. Marketsegmentation has won three in row, including the Grade 1 New York at 1 1/4 miles. Whitebeam won the Grade 3 Gallorette at Pimlico in her second start for Brown. Fluffy Socks beat odds-on favorite Spendarella in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on May 6.

Blazing Sevens points to Curlin

Blazing Sevens, the Preakness runner-up, will now be pointed to the $135,000 Curlin Stakes on July 21 rather than the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy on July 29, Brown said Wednesday.

Brown said that race gives Blazing Sevens an extra week to the Travers and it also enables him to get Flavien Prat to ride the horse. Prat is otherwise committed in the Jim Dandy, presumably to ride Angel of Empire.

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