Mark Casse | Horse Racing Free Tips

Two Sixty Gives Casse-Barber Team Third Straight Selene Triumph

Two Sixty dashed to the lead out of the gates and never looked back in the $125,000 Selene Stakes (Grade 3) on Saturday at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

The victory marks the third straight in the Selene for the trainer-owner combination of Mark Casse and Gary Barber, and second in a row for jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson, who also won last year's edition in rein to Power Gal. For Casse, it was his record-tying (Yonnie Starr) sixth Selene score.

One of three Casse trainees in the field of seven, Two Sixty set out on a front-end mission in the 1 1/16-mile main track stakes event for 3-year-old fillies, posting splits of :24.12, :48.81 and 1:13.36 en route to the three-quarter-length triumph. The final time was 1:45.01.

Saratoga Vision, the longest shot on the board at 84-1, slipped between horses and found a seam towards the rail to close for second-place honors just ahead of the favored Queen's Plate eligibles Owlette and Merveilleux.

“It was clear on paper that Owlette was going to be pace, but they took the blinkers off. So right off the hop, I wanted to get away and set myself at the front with conviction and that's what happened,” said Wilson. “As we eased into the backstretch, I took a little bit of a hold of her. I glanced between my legs and saw that I had a length or so of daylight that I could ease back and have her take a breather. She pricked her ears as we came around the three-quarter pole top of the backstretch and it was great. And then I just waited to hear them… waited to hear them… waited to hear them… waited to hear them… She dug hard, she ran fast and she held them off.”

Two Sixty returned $21.20 to win for the 9-1 upset.

“It's Mark Casse, Gary Barber, you can't go wrong,” said Wilson of picking up the winning mount. “Mark is a fantastic trainer and he puts these horses in races and they can win. I followed instructions. We went with the flow of that. She ran a bang of a race at Gulfstream before she went in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile [ninth]. She went to the lead, set some solid fractions and held them off in hand. She had to work a little harder today, but that's kind of the way it panned out for us.”

Bred in Florida by Shade Tree Thoroughbreds Inc., the Uncaptured–Jim's Lonesa filly entered the Selene off a fourth-place finish in the six-furlong Star Shoot Stakes during her Woodbine debut on June 13. The win was her second in five starts this year, having also captured the Gasparilla Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in January. Two Sixty now boasts a record of 4-1-1 from 11 starts lifetime and is closing in on the $500,000 mark in career earnings.

Casse stablemates Diamond Sparkles and American Tap finished fifth and seventh, respectively, with Livin in the Six sixth.

Live Thoroughbred racing continues, without spectators, on Sunday at Woodbine Racetrack featuring the Grade 3 Seagram Cup. Post time for the first race is 1 p.m.

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Owlette Eyes Woodbine’s Selene

Ten Broeck Farm’s Owlette (Frac Daddy) looks to record her fourth stakes win in Saturday’s GIII Selene S. at Woodbine.

Conditioned by Wesley Ward, the Ontario-bred filly took last year’s Shady Well S. and Victorian Queen S. and subsequently won the June 13 Star Shoot S. in her 2020 bow. Never worse than second in six career starts, including four wins over Woodbine’s Tapeta, Owlette will be joined for the first time by Luis Contreras.

Always armed and dangerous at Woodbine, Mark Casse saddles a pair of fillies for Gary Barber–American Tap (Tapiture) and Two Sixty (Uncaptured)–in addition to Diamond Sparkles (War Front), campaigned by the partnership of Barber and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

Diamond Sparkles made her North American debut in last September’s GI Natalma S., finishing fourth behind Abscond (Blame). In her latest start, while making her debuting over Woodbine’s main track June 13, she finished second.

“She came over from Europe, ran pretty good in the Natalma, and then struggled a little bit through the winter,” said Casse of Diamond Sparkles. “I thought her last race was good and she’s training well. We’re going to give her a shot.”

A victory by Casse in Saturday’s Selene, a stepping stone to the Aug. 15 Woodbine Oaks, would be a record sixth win, tying him with Yonnie Starr. Casse and Barber teamed to take the 2018 edition with Miss Mo Mentum followed by Power Gal last year.

Also a fan of the Woodbine Tapeta, Merveilleux (Paynter) was runner-up in last falls’s Princess Elizabeth S. and Ontario Lassie S. Trained by Kevin Attard, she came home a winner in her sole 2020 start, a June 21 allowance over 8 1/2 furlongs.

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Woodbine’s Seagram Cup Looking Like Rematch Of Eclipse Stakes

Eclipse Stakes (G2) winner Skywire, runner-up Avie's Flatter, and third-place finisher Mr Ritz will square off in Sunday's $125,000 Seagram Cup Stakes (G3), at Woodbine.

Hall of Fame conditioner Josie Carroll will look to win her second straight Seagram crown when she sends out a pair of multiple stakes winners in Avie's Flatter and Mr Ritz, who took last year's running of the 1 1/16-mile main track race for 3-year-olds and upward.

The graded stakes victors meet up again with 4-year-old Skywire, the Mark Casse trainee who pulled off a 17-1 upset in the Eclipse on July 4 at Woodbine.

Ivan Dalos' homebred Avie's Flatter, a 4 year-old son of Flatter, fashions a record of 4-3-2 from 12 career starts. His last victory came in the Transylvania (G3) last April at Keeneland.

The Ontario-bred colt finished third in a 7 ½-furlong turf engagement to launch his 2020 campaign, following it up with the second-place effort in the Eclipse.

Avie's Flatter contested all three jewels in the Canadian Triple Crown, finishing second in the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales, before a third-place performance in the Breeders' Stakes.

A bay son of Oasis Dream (GB) out of Que Puntual, Mr Ritz, bred and owned by Earle Mack, went off as the favorite in the Eclipse, crossing the wire third as the 3-5 choice.

Sporting a 5-3-2 record from 12 career starts, Mr Ritz, after taking his debut in 2017 at Kempton Park in England, came to North America, becoming a stakes winner in 2018 in Indiana before finishing third in the Ontario Derby (G3) at Woodbine.

In 2019, he posted two wins and two seconds in five starts. He won back-to-back stakes last August and September – both by 1 ¼ lengths – including an impressive showing in the Seagram on August 11.

“This is just a really nice horse that I believed was going to improve this year and he's proving us right,” said Carroll after the win.

One month after his Seagram triumph, Mr Ritz headed south and claimed his second consecutive stakes victory, this time in the $200,000 Presque Isle Mile. He stopped the clock in a track record 1:41.91 for the 1 1/16 miles.

Other Seagram contenders include Western Canadian invader Explode, a six-time winner from 12 starts, Jungle Fighter (3-2-1 from seven starts), a son of Animal Kingdom who will make his 4-year-old debut in the Seagram, and Chiefswood Stables' multiple graded stakes winner Tiz a Slam.

The complete field for the Seagram, which is scheduled as race seven of 10 on Sunday's 1 p.m. program, is listed below.

Fans can watch and wager on all the live action via HPIbet.com.

$125,000 SEAGRAM CUP

Post – Horse – Jockey – Trainer

1 – Skywire – Rafael Hernandez – Mark Casse
2 – Mr Ritz – Patrick Husbands – Josie Carroll
3 – Jungle Fighter – Davy Moran – Michael Doyle
4 – Cooler Mike – Kazushi Kimura – Nick Nosowenko
5 – Avie's Flatter – Luis Contreras – Josie Carroll
6 – Tiz a Slam – Steven Bahen – Roger Attfield
7 – Explode – Justin Stein – Stuart Simon
8 – Perfect Tapatino – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Roger Attfield

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Quick Call Looks a Two-Horse Affair

Seven sophomore turf sprinters and one entered only in the event the race comes off the main track are set to contest Friday’s GIII Quick Call S. at Saratoga, but it looks all over a two-horse test.

Jack and Noah (Fr) (Bated Breath {GB}) is the even-money favorite on the morning line and with good reason. A €47,000 Arqana August yearling turned €160,000 Arqana May juvenile purchase by Justin Casse, the gray colt won the six-furlong Atlantic Beach S. at Aqueduct last November, but failed to stay a when sixth at 9-5 in the Texas Turf Mile at Sam Houston in January. Since being cut back to one turn, Jack and Noah ran last year’s GII Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint runner-up Chimney Rock (Artie Schiller) to a head in Churchill allowance company May 17 before wiring the field in the June 19 Sir Cat S. at Belmont, stopping the clock in a slick 1:07.05.

Turned Aside (American Pharoah), seventh in the aforementioned Atlantic Beach S., bested Wednesday allowance winner Maxfield Esquire (Discreet Cat) in a November allowance at the Big A and did the chasing in the Sir Cat, going down by a length.

Jack and Noah is joined in the Quick Call field by stablemate Old Chestnut (Speightstown). The front-running winner of the Ontario Racing S. at Woodbine last September, the Live Oak homebred son of GISW Pool Land (Silver Deputy) snapped a streak of four off-the-board finishes with a third-place effort in the Sir Cat.

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