The Mark Casse-trained pair of State of Honor (To Honor and Serve) and Salty (Quality Road) breezed Easter Sunday at Churchill Downs as they prepare for respective starts in next month's GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks.
State of Honor, runner-up in the GII Tampa Bay Derby Mar. 11 and GI Florida Derby Apr. 1, was credited with a half-mile drill in :49.80 (28/44). He was clocked in splits of :12 and :24.40 with a five-furlong gallop-out in 1:02 under exercise rider E. J. Bowler.
“We really just wanted to get a solid maintenance work in him before something more serious next week,” said Norm Casse, assistant to his father Mark and just back from a trip to Oaklawn to where the barn's champion 2-year-old Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile) bounced back with a victory in the GI Arkansas Derby. “State of Honor is a tremendous work horse so we will probably keep breezing him by himself.”
Salty, meanwhile, a dominant winner of the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks on the Florida Derby undercard, breezed in company with MSW/MGSP turfer Mississippi Delta (Giant's Causeway) under Janelle Castonguay. She stopped the clock in :48 flat (8/44) after splits of :12.20 and :24.40 and before galloping out in 1:01.
“We have always been very high on Salty,” Casse said. “She's extremely talented and could not have gone better over the Churchill surface. We knew she liked the surface as a 2-year-old, but it gives you confidence to see her enjoying it even more as we prep for the Oaks.”
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