La Cara fires half-mile bullet; stablemate Sandman has big five-furlong work

From early Friday evening to Saturday morning and into Saturday afternoon, life was good for Mark Casse at Saratoga.

Casse capped the Friday card by winning the Harvey Pack Stakes with Bring Theband Home, who rolled to a 4 1/4-legnth victory in the turf sprint and earned a whopping 109 Beyer Speed Figure.

Casse started the Saturday card by sending out the first-time starter Ewing, by Knicks Go, to a 12-length victory in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race.

On Saturday morning, Casse sent out two of his Grade 1 winners for workouts for upcoming stakes engagements at the meet.

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La Cara, who has already won two Grade 1 stakes this year, worked a half-mile in 46 seconds over Saratoga’s main track. It was the fastest of 85 works at the half-mile distance Saturday morning. La Cara, who won the Grade 1 Acorn here on June 6, is pointing to the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 19.

“We were supposed to go five-eighths, she broke off and she walks away from the pole and I said, ‘Pick it up,’ ” said Casse, who communicates with his exercise riders via two-way radio. “I should have never said that. La Cara doesn’t need anybody to tell her to pick it up. … She shows you she can run. She did it easy.”

Immediately after La Cara worked, Casse’s 3-year-old colt Sandman, the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby winner who is pointing to the July 26 Jim Dandy Stakes, went five furlongs in 59.38 seconds. Casse, noticing Sandman was losing interest late, radioed his exercise rider to “get after him a little bit” and Sandman got re-engaged and galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.97 and seven-eighths in 1:27.17. Sandman worked in blinkers, equipment he will wear for the first time in the Jim Dandy.

“I wanted him to go ahead and go on out and he did, that was good,” Casse said. “That was his big work. He’ll have an easier work next week and we’re ready. He got a little blow from that.”

The victory by Bring Theband Home in Friday’s Harvey Pack was the 5-year-old gelding’s first in a stakes race. His final time of 59.90 seconds was .10 second off the course record set by Cogburn last year in the Jaipur and it resulted in a 109 Beyer Speed Figure.

“That’s a horse I thought he was a superstar and he just never showed it until yesterday,” Casse said.

Casse said Bring Theband Home will likely be pointed to the Grade 2, $300,000 Troy Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint originally scheduled for Aug. 2 that has been moved to Aug. 3.

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