Shamrock Rose fresh for Hurricane Bertie Stakes
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mark Casse is doing it his way, as usual, bringing Shamrock Rose back to the races on his own terms.
“We could have sent her to California for the La Brea, but I honestly thought the filly had done enough to win the Eclipse Award” for top filly-mare sprinter of 2018, said Casse. “Win or lose, I’m satisfied that we did the right thing. No regrets.”
By Saturday, when Shamrock Rose makes her 4-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie on the Pegasus World Cup undercard at Gulfstream Park, all the Eclipse winners will be known following the annual awards dinner here Thursday night. One of the tighter voting races was expected to be between Shamrock Rose, who won the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at 25-1, and Marley’s Freedom, who was a close fourth in that same race as the odds-on favorite and brought a strong overall body of work to the category.
In the immediate Breeders’ Cup aftermath, Casse contemplated sending Shamrock Rose to Santa Anita for the Grade 1 La Brea on Dec. 26 to strengthen the filly’s Eclipse credentials, but he decided instead to send her to his Ocala, Fla., farm for a 30-day break. Spiced Perfection won the La Brea.
“She did extremely well in her training once we brought her back in early December,” said Casse, a nine-time winner of the Sovereign Award as the top trainer in Canada. “Around the first of the year, I sent her down to Palm Meadows and got a nice gate work in her, and she’s trained right along. I couldn’t be happier with the filly. She’s as ready as ready can be.”
Casse has no definite agenda beyond the seven-furlong Hurricane Bertie for Shamrock Rose, a Pennsylvania-bred owned by Conrad Farms, and is not necessarily committed to such early-season divisional benchmarks as the Madison at Keeneland or Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs.
“This is just a spot to get started on what we hope is another big year for her,” he said. “I actually think she might be better with a little more distance, so my plan is probably to try to stretch her out at some point, maybe sooner than later. Let’s see how she does Saturday and go from there.”
The $150,000 Hurricane Bertie is one of seven stakes to precede the two Pegasus events that culminate a sensational 12-race Saturday program as races 11 and 12. Shamrock Rose, with Irad Ortiz Jr. back to ride, will break from post 4 in a field of eight and puts a four-race win streak on the line. It’s no easy spot, as the opposition includes Dream Pauline, Blamed, and Stormy Embrace.
These are all the supporting stakes on a Saturday card that starts at 11:30 a.m. Eastern: Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint (race 3), Ladies’ Turf Sprint (race 5), South Beach (race 6), Hurricane Bertie (race 7), La Prevoyante (race 8), Fred W. Hooper (race 9), and W.L. McKnight (race 10).
