Woodbine
Woodbine: Stealcase asserts himself with Ontario Derby win
Michael Burns Stealcase wins the Ontario Derby. His options include the $500,000 Indiana Derby.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Grade 3, $154,500 Ontario Derby, an open 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds which was part of Woodbine Mile Day for the first time, provided the venue for Stealcase’s first stakes win.
“We always knew he was a good horse,” said Mark Casse, who trains the Kentucky-bred Stealcase for John Oxley and had started the colt in races such as Saratoga’s Grade 1 Travers and Monmouth’s Grade 1 Haskell before his Woodbine debut on Sunday.
Casse said that Stealcase’s upcoming options included the Grade 2, $500,000 Indiana Derby, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds at Hoosier Park on Oct. 6, and the Grade 3, $150,000 Durham Cup, a 1 1/8-mile race in which he would face older horses here Oct. 14,