Breeders' Cup winner and juvenile filly champion Wonder Wheel will make her 2023 debut this Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs, her dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse told the Thoroughbred Daily News on Tuesday. The 3-year-old daughter of Into Mischief will start in the $150,000 Suncoast Stakes, which offers the first five finishers points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks (20-8-6-4-2).
Wonder Wheel has been training at Casse's Ocala training center, and is coming into the Suncoast with four recorded workouts at the facility.
“She's training super,” Casse told TDN. “She's a tall filly. She's almost 17 hands. I think she has filled out a little bit. When you give a horse time off like we did, it takes them a little while to kind of get back in the groove. But she's in the groove.”
Winner of four of her five career starts, Wonder Wheel was a $275,000 yearling purchase at the Keeneland September sale. The filly was bred in Kentucky by Clearsky Farms and Three Chimneys, and is out of the multiple Grade 1-placed Wonder Gal (Tiz Wonderful).
After the Suncoast, Casse expects to send Wonder Wheel north for the G1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland as her final prep before the Kentucky Oaks.
“She may be one of the best horses I've ever trained,” Casse added. “But I don't want to get too far ahead. Let's see how she does going from two to three. We're going to let her do the talking.”
Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.
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