Mark Casse | Horse Racing Free Tips

First Empire Gives Classic Empire First Stakes Winner In Soaring Free At Woodbine

First Empire, prominent throughout, took charge around the final turn and held off Degree of Risk to score by 1 ¾-lengths in Saturday's $140,250 Soaring Free Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

The Soaring Free, a 6 ½-furlong turf race for 2-year-olds, attracted a field of six and kicked off the first of back-to-back four-stakes programs at the Toronto oval on Queen's Plate weekend.

First Empire, conditioned by Mark Casse, had finished a faltering fifth when debuting here on the Tapeta, but then was a game front-running winner over six furlongs of turf with returning rider Patrick Husbands in the irons.

“When I breezed him in the morning, he's okay, but on the grass, as he's shown in his last two races, he's a different horse,” said Husbands. “I had so much horse swinging for home. I knew it would take a real nice horse to beat him.”

In the Soaring Free, First Empire pressed Indiana invader Heaven Street while racing just outside through an opening quarter in :22.49 and led that one by a length as he got the half in :44.37.

Degree of Risk, invading from Illinois for trainer Eoin Harty, was making his turf debut and impressed, finishing second, despite racing greenly through the lane.

Heaven Street wound up third, 7 ¼-lengths behind the runner-up.

Twenty Four Mamba, who like First Empire is a son of the Casse-trained Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old Classic Empire, was another 3 ½-lengths back in fourth.

Concealed Carry never menaced in finishing fifth and Silent Farewell, a troubled second behind First Empire when debuting here August 1, failed to enter contention as the 9-5 favorite and checked in last.

The final time was 1:15.44.

Sent off as the 5-2 second choice, First Empire returned $7.80 and keyed a $53.70 exacta over 9-1 Degree of Risk. Heaven Street, at 5-1, completed a $97.05 ($1) trifecta and the superfecta with Twenty Four Mamba came back at $312.90 for $1.

First Empire, owned by Dick Bonnycastle's Harlequin Ranches, is out of the Macho Uno mare Silsita and is the first stakes winner for both his dam and his freshman sire. Bred by Saintsbury Farm, First Empire was a $60,000 yearling at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's October sale.

Casse won last year's Soaring Free with Gretzky the Great, who used the race as a stepping-stone to success here in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes and went on to be honored as Canada's Outstanding Male Two-Year-Old.

This year's $400,000 Grade 1 Summer Stakes, a “Win and You're In” for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, will be run at Woodbine on September 19.

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Gonzalez Makes His Return To Riding A Winning One With Three Wins At Gulfstream

Edwin Gonzalez made a rapid return to the Gulfstream Park winner's circle Saturday, scoring victories aboard his first two mounts while notching a three-win day on his first day of riding since sustaining a hairline fraction in his right leg in a July 3 mishap.

The 30-year-old journeyman, who ranked third with 59 victories during his first Spring/Summer Meet at Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach, Fla., when he went to the sidelines, won aboard Mark Casse-trained Credibility ($6.60) in Race 3 and Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Harper Be Good ($15.20) in Race 6. He came back to score with his fifth and last mount of the day, Dem a Wonder ($11) in Race 11.

“Coming back after two months off, I have to get that ground back,” Gonzalez said. “I have to keep working and the winning will take care of itself.”

Gonzalez, who relocated from Penn National in late March, notched his 1500th career victory June 12 at Gulfstream, where he has won four stakes – Powder Break and Ginger Punch aboard Shifty She, English Channel on Yes This Time, and Sunny Isles aboard Caribou Club – during the Spring/Summer Meet. He had been scheduled to ride Miles Ahead in the $200,000 Grade 3 Smile Sprint on the July 3 program. Filling in for Gonzalez, Victor Espinoza rode Miles Ahead to victory in the Summit of Speed co-feature.

“I want to thank all the trainers – Casse and Saffie have helped me a lot – and my agent. It's so hard here. I have the opportunity to keep going, win races and work hard, like I did before,” said Gonzalez, whose is represented by agent Kevin Meyocks.

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Classic Empire Gets His First Stakes Winner

First Empire, fittingly trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, became the first stakes winner for freshman sire Classic Empire with a win in Saturday's Soaring Free S. at Woodbine. He dueled and tired to fifth in his debut over the all-weather July 4, then dueled free when switched to grass to graduate here Aug. 1. Backed as the second choice in this one, First Empire forced the issue from an outside second, began to shake clear rounding the far turn and gamely kept finding after switching to his left lead in the stretch to post a career high.

Progeny in the pipeline for the winner's dam include: a West Coast colt of 2020 and an Uncle Mo colt of this year. She was bred back to Good Magic.

SOARING FREE S., C$140,250, Woodbine, 8-21, 2yo, 6 1/2fT, 1:15.44, fm.
1–FIRST EMPIRE, 120, c, 2, by Classic Empire
                1st Dam: Silsita (GSW, $213,873), by Macho Uno
                2nd Dam: Naturally Wild, by Wild Again
                3rd Dam: Nat's Lea, by L'Natural
($75,000 RNA Ylg '20 FTKSEL; $60,000 Ylg '20 FTKOCT). 1ST
BLACK TYPE WIN. O-Harlequin Ranches; B-Saintsbury Farms
Inc. (ON); T-Mark E. Casse; J-Patrick Husbands. C$90,000.
Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-0, $122,207. *First stakes winner for
freshman sire (by Pioneerof the Nile).
2–Degree of Risk, 120, c, 2, Cairo Prince–Wipe Out, by Hard
Spun. O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Eoin G. Harty. C$25,000.
3–Heaven Street, 120, c, 2, Street Sense–Heavenly View, by
Congrats. ($275,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Siena Farms, LLC
& Asmussenequine.com; B-Siena Farms LLC (KY); T-Steven M.
Asmussen. C$13,750.
Margins: 1 3/4, 7 1/4, 3HF. Odds: 2.90, 9.30, 5.25.
Also Ran: Twenty Four Mamba, Concealed Carry, Silent Farewell. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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‘We’ve Never Backed Down From A Challenge’: Got Stormy To Face Males Again In Kentucky Downs’ Turf Sprint

Got Stormy, fresh off her second triumph in three years in Saratoga's Grade 1 Fourstardave against males, is returning to Kentucky Downs for her next start on Sept. 11. But in a twist, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse doesn't plan to run the 6-year-old mare in The Mint Ladies Sprint that she won last year but back against the boys in the $1 million FanDuel Turf Sprint.

Both races are part of Kentucky Downs' blockbluster Sept. 11 card featuring five graded stakes.

The six-furlong FanDuel Turf Sprint (G3), part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series, offers $400,000 more in purse money than the $600,000 Ladies Sprint (G3) at 6 1/2 furlongs. The FanDuel winner also receives an automatic, fees-paid berth in the $1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 6 at Del Mar. But that doesn't seem the overarching motivation for taking the tougher route.

“Obviously, she's not afraid of colts,” Casse said Tuesday evening. “I really don't think it matters if she runs 6 or 6 1/2 furlongs. We've never backed down from a challenge.” And, too, he said, “It is a much bigger purse.”

But more than the money, the owners and Casse welcome an opportunity to add to the legacy of Got Stormy, who already was the only female to win the Fourstardave, that coming for the first time in 2019. No filly or mare has won Kentucky Downs' Turf Sprint, first run in 1998.

“Doing things that others haven't done,” Casse said. “I think we're wanting to prove that she is one of the elite turf mares of this century. Maybe with her Fourstardave, another (win against males) might get her into the Hall of Fame.”

Got Stormy has won 12 of 30 starts, with five seconds and three thirds, and $2,398,403 in purse earnings. In addition to her Fourstardave victories, Got Stormy has finished second four times against males in Grade 1 stakes in New York, California and Canada.

Casse said Got Stormy will target the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile on turf, a race for which she already received a “Win And You're In” spot from the Fourstardave victory. Got Stormy finished second in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

The only reason Casse ran her in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint last year at Keeneland was his belief that the mare isn't as effective at a mile if the turf is not firm, which can often be the case in Kentucky in the fall. In preparation for shortening up, he ran Got Stormy in last year's Ladies Sprint at Kentucky Downs, her first time racing less than 7 1/2 furlongs since her first start in 2017. She won by 3 1/4 lengths over soft turf.

Soft turf should not be a factor back in California. Got Stormy also is 1-for-1 at Del Mar, winning the Grade 1 Matriarch.

Spendthrift Farm paid $2.75 million for Got Stormy at Fasig-Tipton's November sale and campaigns the mare with My Racehorse Stable, which sells micro-shares in stakes-quality horses to allow thousands of people to experience participating at the top end of the game. Gary Barber was her previous owner.

Got Stormy started her 2021 season with victory in Gulfstream Park's Grade 3 Honey Fox. However, she came into the Fourstardave off a pair of fifth-place finishes at Churchill Downs and Belmont Park. Casse and jockey Tyler Gaffalione were not among those assuming the mare finally lost a step to age.

“Just kind of the way she trained,” Casse said of his confidence. “Then Tyler made me feel really good, too, because he breezed her about two weeks out. He came back with the biggest smile and said, 'She's back.' After I saddled her Saturday and she was walking around in the paddock, I looked at (Spendthrift general manager) Ned Toffey and said, 'They better be tied on. Because she's got her game face on today.'”

Off at 12-1 odds, Got Stormy beat Set Piece by 1 1/2 lengths.

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