Like His Namesake, Gretzky The Great Taking On Big Challenge In Breeders’ Cup

Mark Casse and his wife had just arrived in Lexington, KY on Tuesday when they got the good news they needed. They'd both tested negative for Covid-19 and would be able to attend the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf presented by Coolmore America at Keeneland.

That allows them to see if Gretzky the Great can continue to win like his namesake.

A name that boomed over the speakers at Woodbine this summer, Gretzky the Great was bred by Anderson Farms in St. Thomas, Ont. Anderson was impressed with the colt and Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred paired with L.A. film producer Gary Barber to buy the horse. They handed him off to Casse, the trainer.

“I can remember when we first started training him in Ocala,” Casse said.

“When he started breezing I told Gary Barber and Aron Wellman both, I said, 'I think this horse is pretty good.' He's just done everything right, right from the beginning. I was surprised when he got beat his first time. I didn't think he'd get beat, but of course he got beat by a good horse that had a race over him.”

He lost that first race to Ready to Repeat on July 12 at Woodbine, placing second. He shook off the early loss to mount three wins in a row, on Aug. 2, then taking the Soaring Free Stakes on Aug. 23 and the Grade-1 Summer Stakes — a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series race — on Sept. 20.

“Since then, he keeps winning,” Casse said. “He's a beautiful-moving horse…and he's an extremely smart horse.”

While the horse was trained in Canada, the hockey-inspired name actually came from Barber, whose work in the film industry spans the last three decades and coincides with Wayne Gretzky's time as an L.A. King.

“I think Gary Barber named him. Gary is a huge, huge sports fan,” Casse said, pointing out that Gretzky the Great's sire is Nyquist, who is named after Detroit Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist. His owner, J. Paul Reddam is a big Wings and (obviously) a Nyquist fan. So hockey, or at least hockey fandom, is in the family's blood.

“Nyquist is just turning out to be a phenomenal sire. This is his first crop,” Casse said.

Like Wayne Gretzky, Gretzky the Great is following a similar path in his field: Ontario-bred, success in Canada early in his career and now getting into the spotlight of his sport in the U.S. Of course, just four races into his young career, Gretzky the Great's future is in front of him and even with the promise he's shown to this point, nothing is guaranteed.

“It's tough to know,” Casse said. “He's going where he was a star in a regional area. Now he's going to compete against the world and you just never know how you fit in until you try. We've been fortunate, we've won the Breeders' Cup five times.

“Even at that point, with some of your horses you never know. It's truly hard to gauge. You go in with as much confidence as you can, but knowing that you never know until it's over.”

That's also part of the fun for Casse, who started down a path that his wife has heard him take by his estimation a million times in their years together.

“Training horses is like putting a puzzle together,” he said. “You're always trying different pieces and seeing what works. So far with him, the puzzle pieces have gone in very nicely.”

He looks at Gretzky the Great and wonders just how great he could be. He could see the Canadian-bred horse competing for the Queen's Plate, or maybe even at the Kentucky Derby. For now, it's step-by-step, race-by-race.

On Friday, Gretzky the Great will have some challenges. Casse said he could have gotten a better post, noting how hard it is to win from the 11-hole. He'll also be going from a one-turn mile at Woodbine to a two-turn mile in Lexington.

There are old stories about a young Wayne Gretzky playing above his head when he was young, a scrawny boy playing against kids a few years older than him. He scored his 1,000th minor hockey goal when he was 13; he scored 378 goals in his final season of peewee.

On Friday, a 2-year-old horse that's named after hockey's greatest player will try to make its mark against stiff competition. This is his opportunity.

“I'm hoping that one day he's good enough that maybe Wayne comes to see him,” Casse said. A lot has to happen first but if Gretzky the Great stays in the winner's circle enough, he might get his full circle moment.

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Unknown Commodities: Mark Casse On Bringing Freshman-Sired Runners Into The Breeders’ Cup

Though we can certainly start to form opinions on the talent and preferences of freshman sires by the fall, no stallion's resume is completely written heading into their first crop's Breeders' Cup.

Up to this point, even the most prolific freshman sires only have a small sampling of horses at the distances and class levels seen during the championship races. Though it can help guide a narrative, a strong or poor performance by one or two runners from a debut crop on one day at a single track does not engrave a sire's capability for putting out a precocious foal.

Trainer Mark Casse has two runners by freshman sires entered in this year's Breeders' Cup races for 2-year-olds, meaning he will be part of the real-time focus group learning about their sires' abilities with the rest of the world. Casse will send Gretzky the Great, by Nyquist, to the Juvenile Turf; and Dirty Dangle, by Not This Time, to the Juvenile Turf Sprint.

This is not to say, though, that Casse is going into these races completely blind to how his runners will perform. Aside from the obvious factors of hands-on experience and the horses' own past performance, the trainer prides himself in doing his homework when it comes to pedigree research.

“At the end of every day, I go through and look at the charts at every major racetrack, and I make mental notes of what sires are doing well on different surfaces,” he said. “I pay a lot of attention, too, to damsires. I'm big on buying out of certain damsires.”

Gretzky the Great flies the banner for sire Nyquist, a member of Darley's stallion roster in Lexington, Ky.

Nyquist was himself part of the record-setting freshman crop for sire Uncle Mo. Both Nyquist and Uncle Mo snagged Eclipse Awards as champion 2-year-old male after winning their respective editions of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, giving plenty of evidence that Nyquist's foals would be early types.

That has proven out thus far, with Nyquist siring a pair of Grade 1 winners heading into Novemver, making him the only North American freshman sire with more than one graded stakes winner. Nyquist's other Grade 1 winner this season was Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies contender Vequist, who took the G1 Spinaway Stakes earlier this year.

Gretzky the Great added himself to that list when he won the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 20, clinching a “Win and You're In” berth to the Juvenile Turf in the process. The Ontario-bred has raced exclusively at Woodbine, breaking his maiden in his second start, then taking the listed Soaring Free Stakes before moving on to the Summer.

“We had high hopes on him from the beginning, but I think he's just gotten bigger, and better, and he's thriving,” Casse said. “He looks tremendous. He moves over the ground great. I believe if you can go a mile at Woodbine with that long stretch, you can pretty well go a mile anywhere. I think the two turns will actually be a benefit for him. He's got enough speed, he's going to be fairly close as long as he breaks well, and I think he'll really like this turf course.”

Nyquist raced exclusively on dirt during his own on-track career, and while Gretzky the Great's dam Pearl Turn started her career in Ireland, all of her wins came over the dirt after returning to the U.S.

Casse said the decision to start Gretzky the Great on the turf was part of his overarching program with his Ontario-based 2-year-olds.

“The pedigree obviously is extremely important, but that's what we do as trainers; we try different things,” he said. “With Gretzky the Great, our Grade 1 race for 2-year-olds is the Summer, so I try to get my horses to at least give them a chance on the grass. It turns out the Nyquists can do anything.”

Nyquist leads a tight race as the leading freshman sire by progeny earnings, with $1,108,381. Tracking closely behind him in second is Taylor Made Stallions' Not This Time, with $1,053,867.

Not This Time will be represented in Casse's barn by Juvenile Turf Sprint contender Dirty Dangle, who is unbeaten in two starts, both at Woodbine.

The filly enters the Juvenile Turf Sprint off a 1 1/4-length closing score in the Woodbine Cares Stakes on Sept. 19. She won on debut over Woodbine's all-weather main track in her debut.

“We purchased her after her last race, so I didn't have the privilege of training her before, but her race on turf at Woodbine was extremely good,” Casse said. “That's what made us purchase her.”

Dirty Dangle now races for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber, the same connections that campaign Gretzky the Great.

Not This Time's freshman runners are led by probable Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies favorite Princess Noor, who brought $1.35 million at auction earlier this year, and has gone undefeated in three starts, including a 6 1/2-length score in the G1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes and an 8 1/4-length drubbing of the Chandelier Stakes.

Like Nyquist, Not This Time was a fast-starting 2-year-old during his own time on the racetrack, winning the G3 Iroquois Stakes leading into a runner-up finish in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

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Quality Sells At Fasig-Tipton

LEXINGTON, KY – While Into Mischief secured the top lots during Monday’s first session of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale, it was Quality Road in charge during Tuesday’s second session as Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners went to a session-topping $560,000 to secure a son of the Lane’s End stallion. The day kicked off with a daughter of Quality Road bringing what was ultimately the session’s co-second-highest price of $230,000.

Through two sessions, Fasig-Tipton has sold 489 yearlings for a gross of $16,390,500. The two-day average is $33,518, down 12.7% from last year’s corresponding figure, while the median remained unchanged at $15,000.

“There was solid trade again today,” Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning said Tuesday evening. “There was a very respectable RNA rate, the average was down slightly from last year at this point. All in all, I think there has been a legitimate marketplace that has been fair for both buyers and sellers.”

The buy-back rate continued to trend down from 2019, with the two-day figure resting at 21.4% following Tuesday’s action.

“The credit for [the buy-back rate] goes to the sellers for being pretty realistic in their expectations,” Browning said. “Both the owners and the consignors/agents who have educated their principals as to the realities of the marketplace. So the buy-back rate has certainly been at an acceptable level and there are horses who continue to get sold post-sale that aren’t reflected in that figure.”

Through the first two days of the four-day auction, 10 yearlings have sold for $200,000 or over, compared to 21 a year ago.

The auction continued the familiar refrain of market polarization, with the perceived quality lots attracting plenty of attention and horses below that mark struggling.

“It’s been soft, but when the right one shows up, the money shows up,” trainer Bruce Levine summed up the market at Fasig-Tipton this week. Levine purchased a colt by Pioneeof the Nile for the session’s co-second highest price of $230,000.

Internet bidding has produced 43 sales during the first two days of the sale, with 27 yearlings selling online Tuesday added to 16 Monday.

“Some of those folks would have contacted somebody, used an agent, would have phone bid, or figured out another way to bid, but clearly certain people are comfortable in participating via the internet,” Browning said. “It’s another way to provide bidding opportunities and options for those who want to participate in that fashion.”

The October sale continues through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

Eclipse Hoping for Another ‘Great’ Colt
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners will be heading to the Breeders’ Cup in a couple weeks with Grade I-winning juvenile Gretzky the Great and the operation added a Quality Road half-brother to that colt to its roster when bloodstock agent Jacob West signed the ticket on hip 498 at $560,000. The yearling was bred and consigned by Dave Anderson’s Anderson Farms.

“It makes sense,” West, bidding outside behind the pavilion, said of the purchase. “Eclipse has the brother, and this colt was the star of the show here in our opinion. He is by a proven sire in Quality Road that Eclipse has had a lot of success with and he’s a half to a horse we know a lot about, obviously, and have had success with. He’s from a good breeder in Dave Anderson and his operation.”

West expects the June 4 colt will only continue to improve.

“Being a June foal, Dave did right by him, backing him up into this sale and giving him as much time as he could to let him grow up and into himself. But I still think the horse has a lot more maturing to do and he’s going to look like a completely different horse even 60 days from now.”

Of the yearling’s final price, West said, “We knew we weren’t going to walk in here and steal him. He was a pretty obvious horse for everybody.”

The SF Bloodstock and Starlight spearheaded partnership which has been so active buying well-bred yearling colts this fall, was underbidder on the youngster while doing their bidding upstairs in the pavilion.

Gretzky the Great RNA’d for $295,000 at last year’s October sale. Campaigned by Eclipse and Gary Barber and trained by Mark Casse, the colt broke his maiden at Woodbine in August and added the Soaring Free S. just weeks later. He booked his ticket to the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf with a 3 1/4-length victory in the Sept. 20 GI Summer S., which was run as the Keeneland September sale was already halfway done.

“We pointed this horse to this sale because he was a June foal and we just wanted to give him some more time,” Anderson said. “We were hoping that his brother would continue to do well and the stars were aligned.”

Anderson, who sold a Medaglia d’Oro filly (hip 319) for $1.6 million at last month’s Keeneland September sale, purchased Pearl Turn (Bernardini) for $310,000 at the 2016 Keeneland November sale. Now 10, the mare was multiple stakes placed while earning $182,560 on the racetrack.

“At the time, I didn’t realize that Bernardini was going to go on and be as good a broodmare as he is,” Anderson said of his 2016 purchase. “That was just a plus. But she comes from an old Calumet family that my dad had a couple of mares out of and that family meant a lot to me. The mare could really run, though it didn’t show it on paper, but she had a lot of ability. Any time you can find a mare bred like her that had a lot of ability, you’ve got to take advantage of it.”

Anderson added Pearl Turn is currently in foal to Nyquist’s sire Uncle Mo and due early.

Quality Road Filly Kickstarts Tuesday
A filly by Quality Road (hip 389), the first horse through the ring Tuesday morning, got the second session of the October sale off to a quick start when selling for $230,000 to the bid of pinhooker Ciaran Dunne. The yearling is out of the stakes-placed Moonlight Sky (Sky Mesa), a half-sister to champion Abel Tasman (Quality Road). She was bred by China Horse Club International and consigned Tuesday by Claiborne Farm.

“It’s obvious,” Dunne said of the yearling’s appeal. “She’s a Quality Road filly and we have had a lot of success with Quality Road through the years. For me, he is the best sire in the country. It’s a wonderful family. She needs to mature, but she’s a late foal, so hopefully she will.”

Dunne purchased a colt by Quality Road for $240,000 on behalf of a pinhooking partnership at last year’s October sale and the youngster (hip 1018) sold for $1.25 million at this year’s OBS Spring Sale. Dunne’s Wavertree Stables also sold subsequent multiple Grade I winner Bellafina (Quality Road) and multiple graded winner Blofeld (Quality Road).

Dunne did his bidding on the yearling from the back row of the sales pavilion, ultimately seeing off a group led by Becky Thomas and Al Pike sitting just a few rows in front of him.

China Horse Club, which co-owned 2017 GI Kentucky Oaks winner and champion 3-year-old filly Abel Tasman, purchased Moonlight Sky for $675,000 at that year’s Fasig-Tipton November sale. The yearling, a May 22 filly, is the mare’s first foal. She was not bred last year, but was bred back to Curlin this past spring.

“That was a great result,” Claiborne’s Jill Gordon said. “The filly has always been very straightforward at the farm and she was the same up here. She is a beautiful mover and she’s got a lot of class.”

Abel Tasman, who sold for $5 million to Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier at the 2019 Keeneland January sale, produced a colt by Galileo (Ire) this year.

Levine Strikes for Pioneerof the Nile Colt

Bruce Levine vetted just one horse at Newtown Paddocks this week, a colt by Pioneerof the Nile, and that yearling (hip 680) will join the trainer’s New York-based string after selling for $230,000 Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton.

“I just thought he was a neat-looking colt,” Levine said after signing the ticket on behalf of an undisclosed client. “He’s out of a graded stakes-winning mare. And the sire–how are you going to knock him?”

The bay colt is out of Savvy Supreme (Distorted Humor), who is a full-sister to Grade I winner Commentator. Co-bred by WinStar Farm and Joe Minor’s JSM Equine, the yearling was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency.

WinStar purchased Savvy Supreme for $520,000 as a weanling at the 2008 Keeneland November sale and she won the 2011 GIII Monmouth Oaks in that operation’s colors. Carrying this Pioneerof the Nile colt, she RNA’d for $170,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November sale. The yearling’s full-brother sold for $350,000 to Repole and St. Elias at the 2019 Keeneland September sale.

Of the colt’s final price Tuesday, Levine said, “I think it was just me and one other person and we kept going from $75,000 or $80,000, he just kept chasing me. I would have gone a little higher, but not much higher. I was at Keeneland, we bought a couple, and I wanted to get one or two more. But this was a horse I liked and he was actually the only one I vetted. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”

Not This Time Colt Helps Lange Weather Storm
Lee Lange and Don Credeur were on the road home to Louisiana Tuesday as Hurricane Zeta bore down on the state, but before they left Lexington the two men watched their colt by Not This Time sell for $170,000 to Team Casse. Lange and Credeur purchased Pop Singer (Scat Daddy), with this colt in utero, for $14,000 at the Fasig-Tipton February sale in 2019.

“She was such a beautiful mare herself and she was by Scat Daddy, so those were the two things that appealed to me and my partner, Don Credeur,” Lange said Tuesday. “I thought we stole her at that price.”

Credeur added with a laugh, “We just met the guy we bought her from and naturally he wants her back.”

Since Lange and Credeur purchased the 7-year-old mare, who was carrying her first foal, Not This Time’s popularity has only grown, helped by the Grade I victory of OBS Spring topper Princess Noor.

“Every time we got a tidbit of news, it was even better,” Lange said of the first-year sire’s exploits.

Lange said they were expecting the yearling would sell in the range of $125,000, so he exceeded expectations, but was making up for what has been a tough year to sell yearlings.

“I sold a couple of 2-year-olds, but up until this point I think we had bought all of our yearlings back,” Lange said.

Credeur said, “We brought five to the Opelousas sale and had to buy them all back.”

Lange, who owns Sunset Stables in Louisiana and is president of the oil pipe company Aztec Pipe, Inc., has about 10 mares, some of which are in partnership with Credeur.

“We only race what we can’t sell,” Lange said.

Of Pop Singer, Lange added, “We still have the mare. She didn’t get in foal last year, but she is back in foal this year to Midshipman.”

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Ky October Yearlings Catalog Online

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 1,553 yearlings for its Kentucky October Yearlings Sale, to be held Oct. 26-29, in Lexington, Kentucky. The catalog may be viewed online, and will also be available via the equineline sales catalogue app. Four continuous sessions, conducted Monday through Thursday, will begin each day at 10 a.m.

“This is the strongest group of yearlings we have ever offered at Kentucky October,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “This spring, a significant number of sellers decided that they would target October with many of their top yearlings.  Buyers will find tremendous quality here, no matter what their budget.”

This year’s catalog cover features recent sale graduates champion juvenile filly British Idiom (Flashback) and Grade I winning Gretzky the Great (Nyquist).

Print catalogs will be available on-site in Lexington approximately one week before the sale, as well as from Fasig-Tipton’s regional offices and national representatives at that time. Online bidding and phone bidding services will be available to buyers. For more information, visit www.fasigtipton.com.

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