Woodbine: Appreciating, Madly Truly give Casse a good shot at fourth Mazarine win

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse will try to win the $150,000 Mazarine Stakes for the fourth time Saturday at Woodbine, when he runs Appreciating and Madly Truly in the 1 1/16-mile Polytrack route for 2-year-old fillies.

Appreciating, a daughter of the hot Sky Mesa, made both of her previous starts on the grass. She came on strongly in the final furlong to land her debut in a seven-furlong maiden special Aug. 23 and then rallied for third in the Grade 2 Natalma Stakes.

“Appreciating has always trained really well on the Poly,” Casse said. “We put her in the maiden race on the grass because that’s all there was for her at the time. After she won, I had to run her back in the Natalma, but our feeling has been that she’s better on the Poly. The Sky Mesas are very versatile.”

Gary Boulanger retains the mount on Appreciating, a homebred owned by John Oxley, who also owns Madly Truly.

Madly Truly graduated in her second start July 20 and went on to finish third in another six-furlong sprint on the Polytrack, the Ontario Debutante Stakes.

Under Patrick Husbands, Madly Truly raced wide throughout the one-mile Natalma, while closing to finish a head behind Appreciating in fourth. Ready to Act, the Natalma favorite, seemed headed for victory at the eighth pole, where she ducked in and lost her rider.

“Obviously, the filly that lost the rider was the best horse in the race,” Casse said. “If you take her out, with a little better trip, I thought [Madly Truly] possibly could have won. She got hung up and came running late. I thought she ran well, and Patrick thought the same thing. She’s bred to run as far as they run races. She worked really well the other day.”

Trainer Roger Attfield, who has won the Grade 3 Mazarine a record four times, entered the Natalma winner, Llanarmon, and Unspurned.

Llanarmon rallied for third when she debuted in Appreciating’s triumph. After saving ground in fifth in the Natalma, she scooted around the fallen Ready to Act en route to a three-quarter-length score under Emma-Jayne Wilson.

“I was really happy with my position,” Wilson said. “When I called on her, despite the activity, she [closed] really strong. She stalled, had a look at everything, regained her focus, and finished on up.”

Unspurned set the pace in the Natalma and then faded before checking in sixth after jumping the fallen rider. She graduated over seven furlongs on the Polytrack in her only other outing Aug. 17.

The lone shipper in the eight-horse field is the Chicago-based Tamazula, who was a prominent fourth in the one-mile Arlington-Washington Lassie on Polytrack on Sept. 7.