Casse sends out five winners on opening weekend

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mark Casse has won the Sovereign Award for the top trainer in Canada a remarkable seven times, but that’s not the whole story. All of North America now seems to be his domain, and that includes Keeneland, where the 54-year-old Indianapolis native enjoyed a fall-meet opening weekend he won’t soon forget.

Casse sent out five winners from 11 starters over the three-day weekend as he pursues his second training title at Keeneland, where he has been kicking around since he was a teenager. Two winners came in FallStars stakes as Tepin crushed the opposition Saturday in the Grade 1 First Lady and Airoforce outfooted 13 other 2-year-olds Sunday in the Grade 3 Bourbon. “Going in, I thought we might have a good weekend, but you never think it’ll turn out as well as it did,” said Casse, the leading trainer at the 2014 spring meet.

With major clients such as John Oxley, Robert Masterson, Gary Barber, and Brad Kelley supplying him with well-bred stock, Casse has extended his reach to all corners of the racing map. Besides his home base at Woodbine in Canada, he also has been very active in recent years in Kentucky, Florida, New York, and Southern California. Casse learned the horse business from his father, Norm, a prominent bloodstock agent who conducted a lot of business at Keeneland and now is retired in Florida. Mark Casse has been passing along his expertise to his son Norman, the second of his seven children.

Norman Casse has assumed an increasingly prominent role as top assistant in the powerhouse stable. “I was telling Norman the other day how I’ve been walking through this paddock for 35 years and how special it is to have your horses run well here,” said Mark Casse. Casse said he currently has about 50 horses split between Keeneland and Churchill, and he expects to continue to enter “at a pretty healthy rate” through Oct. 24, the end of the 17-day meet, and through Breeders’ Cup weekend, Oct. 30-31.

Owing largely to the wet and chilly weather during the first two days of FallStars Weekend, ontrack business was down substantially compared to the three corresponding dates at the 2014 fall meet. However, the good news for Keeneland is that all-sources wagering on opening weekend totaled nearly $31.8 million, an increase of 8 percent over last year, when the gross handle was $29.4 million. Attendance for the three-day weekend was 39,759, down 22.6 percent, while ontrack handle was $3,135,215, down 22.2 percent.

Kendrick Carmouche, currently based in New York, was expected to miss about a week of action to recover from “sore ribs and overall body soreness,” according to agent Kid Breeden. Carmouche was hurt when his mount, Shore Runner, fatally broke down Saturday in the Woodford Stakes. Shaun Bridgmohan was the only other jockey affected by the spill. Bridgmohan took off his three Sunday mounts because of a sore ankle but hoped to be back in action here Wednesday, according to agent Jay Fedor.

Entries were to be taken Tuesday for the $100,000 Franklin County Stakes, which serves as the Friday feature. The 5 1/2-furlong turf race is expected to match familiar rivals Ageless and Free as a Bird. Owner Maggi Moss announced Saturday via Twitter that she has retired Delaunay, an 8-year-old Maryland-bred gelding who won 11 stakes and more than $1.2 million.