At the start of racing on Thursday, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse was just three wins away from 3,000 – a mark he could eclipse with Stonestreet Stables' Hendy Woods in Saturday's $200,000 Mrs. Revere (Grade II) at Churchill Downs.
“I actually didn't realize we were this close until Wednesday night when (owner) Gary Barber said something to me,” Casse said from his home in Ocala, Fla. “It's a lot of wins and lots of getting beat up trying to get them.”
Casse has yet to win the Mrs. Revere but his assistant trainer, David Carroll, won the race in 2008 with Acoma. Carroll oversees Casse's Churchill Downs string and has been with Hendy Woods since the start of her career in January at Fair Grounds.
“She can be a bit of a difficult horse to ride at times but has a lot of talent,” Carroll said. “I think with only seven in the Mrs. Revere, and not a lot of pace, it'll be interesting to see how things play out early. She's run well in all of her starts but ran into some really nice horses in her last two races like Sharing and Harvey's Lil Goil.”
Saturday's Mrs. Revere is the headliner of the 11-race program beneath the Twin Spires. First post is 1 p.m. (all times Eastern) and the Mrs. Revere will go as Race 10 with a post time of 5:36 p.m. Run at 1 1/16 miles over the Matt Winn Turf Course, the Mrs. Revere is the lone graded stakes race in North America this weekend.
Churchill Downs leading rider Tyler Gaffalione will be aboard Hendy Woods in the Mrs. Revere. Gaffalione finished third in last year's running of the race aboard The Mackem Bullet.
Casse had two horses entered on Thursday: one at Indiana Grand and one at Gulfstream Park West.
The Mrs. Revere field from the rail out (with jockey, trainer and morning line odds): Hendy Woods (Gaffalione, Casse, 3-1); Positive Danger (Brian Hernandez Jr., Tony Granitz, 15-1); Stunning Sky (Ricardo Santana Jr., Mike Maker, 5-2); Princess Grace (Florent Geroux, Mike Stidham 3-1); How Ironic (Rafael Bejarano, Vicki Oliver, 4-1); Pass the Plate (Joe Talamo, Paul McGee, 8-1); and Witez (Julien Leparoux, Ian Wilkes, 8-1).
The Mrs. Revere is named in tribute to the highly competitive filly who collected a total of four Churchill Downs stakes during the two-year span of 1984-85. Mrs. Revere won three stakes in total during her 3-year-old season, thus providing the appropriate name for this stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the turf. Mrs. Revere was owned by the partnership of Dr. Hiram Polk and Dr. David Richardson.
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