Jacks or Better horses transferred from Gold to Casse

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The long and extremely successful tenure for Stanley Gold as trainer for Fred Brei’s Jacks or Better Farm is over. Gold, in a simple statement on Tuesday, said: “I no longer train horses for Jacks or Better Farm. I wish them the best of luck in the future and I look forward to rebuilding my racing stable.”

Among the horses leaving Gold’s barn on Tuesday was Kentucky Derby hopeful Fellowship, who like the other Jacks or Better horses was transferred to trainer Mark Casse. Both Fellowship and the multiple-grades-stakes-winning 3-year-old sprinter Awesome Banner departed immediately for Churchill Downs. The others will remain, at least for the time being, with Casse at Gulfstream Park, where he will leave a significant string for the first time this summer.

Gold recently took on several new owners, including Pinnacle Racing, Teresa Palmer, and Paul Buckley, and has 10 horses in his barn. He and Brei have dominated the Florida Sire Series together for the last decade and are the winningest trainer and owner in the history of the series with 18 victories apiece. Their latest win in the series was Fellowship’s 41/2-length triumph in the In Reality Stakes at Gulfstream Park during the fall. Fellowship earned his way into the Kentucky Derby field by virtue of his third-place finishes in the Grade 2 Holy Bull, Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, and Grade 1 Florida Derby.

Gold first took out his trainer’s license in 1978 but has had the bulk of his success since joining forces with Jacks or Better in 2006. He has won 295 races overall, the majority for Jacks or Better, with 60 of those victories coming in stakes. The most notable of those stakes wins came in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies with Awesome Feather, who won her first six starts under Gold’s tutelage. She also swept all three legs of the filly division of the Florida Stallion Series earlier that year. Gold also developed Jackson Bend, another Jacks or Better homebred, who swept the Florida Stallion Series before going on to be a two time Grade 1 winner with Nick Zito.

Casse said he received a call out of the blue from Brei a couple of days earlier regarding Fellowship.

“He said he’d like to get him up to Churchill early for the Derby and would I be interested in training him, that’s all I really know,” said Casse. “We are staying in south Florida for the summer for the first time and I have gotten call from some other owners wanting to race year round there. I’m excited about getting Fellowship and looking forward to it.”

Casse said Fellowship was to arrive in Kentucky on Wednesday. He said Fellowship’s regular jockey Jose Lezcano would retain the mount in the Derby.