Mark Casse

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY -- She would have been the likely favorite in next Saturday's $500,000 GI Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. But that point is moot now. 'TDN Rising Star' Ways and Means (Practical Joke) won't run. Trainer Chad Brown delivered the news Thursday morning at his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. "Unfortunately, she got sick," Brown said, sitting at his desk in his office. "She's sick, she's not running. Next question. There is nothing to talk about. She's going to miss the race." Brown was forced to...

A single filly, No Time (Not This Time), was named the 7-2 morning-line favorite in a 13-horse field due to line up for the King's Plate Saturday at Woodbine. North America's oldest continually contested race, the Canadian-bred 3-year-olds will go 1 1/4 miles on the main track as the first of three legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. To be ridden again by John Velazquez, the daughter of Not This Time last won the Woodbine Oaks for owner Gary Barber and trainer Mark Casse--the jockey, owner and trainer who won...

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Trainer Kenny McPeek wanted 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) to work during her work on Sunday morning. And that is what she did. Maybe a little bit more The charismatic 4-year-old, ridden by Luis Rivera Jr., stepped onto the Oklahoma Training Track just after 7:30 a.m. and did her thing. Working with stablemate Midnight Concerto (Mendelssohn) and Danny Ramsey, Thorpedo Anna went five furlongs in 1:01.80 (3/11). However, the work had a wrench tossed into it when Midnight Concerto far in front of...

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse needed a very good reason to miss next weekend's prestigious $1-million Listed King's Plate at Woodbine. Actually, he has two of them. Casse will miss Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race--one has won three times--because he's staying in Saratoga to try and win the $600,000 GI Alabama Stakes for the first time. He will be well represented by La Cara (Street Sense) and Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in Saratoga's premier race for 3-year-old fillies. The King's Plate at Woodbine and Alabama are both...

Bring Theband Home (Into Mischief) is a Saratoga boy through and through, giving the field the slip and strolling home to claim the GII Troy Stakes while also keeping his perfect record at the Spa intact. With the exception of his shortened sophomore season in 2023, the Mark Casse runner had made a return to Saratoga every year since his juvenile season, and every year returned to his homebase in Florida with a win to his credit. The most recent appearance was July 4 when he took the Harvey Pack...

Saturday's racing action at Saratoga and across the country saw not only an eye-catching number of new 'TDN Rising Stars' (the final tally stopping on five), but also current members of the club securing sensational victories against salty competition. With the runners emerging from their efforts with positive prognoses, their connections are now looking ahead. Of the established 'Rising Stars', GII Saratoga Special victor Ewing (Knicks Go) returned from that win in fine form and will now be tasked with stretching his abilities out. The Mark Casse trainee was one...

'TDN Rising Star' Ewing (c, 2, Knicks Go--Sassy Ali Joy, by Indian Charlie), a daylight debut winner at the Spa July 5, rushed up to the front from his rail draw after a slow start and never looked back in Saturday's GII Saratoga Special S. The 8-5 second-choice sped through an opening quarter in :22.26 and was challenged by the unbeaten favorite and fellow 'Rising Star' Obliteration (Violence) on the far turn. Ewing had another gear, however, and floated out his rival at the top of the stretch. He opened...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Just after 6:30 on a dreary, rainy Thursday morning, a 4-year-old gelding named Corruption (Medaglia d'Oro), with a long white blaze on his face, stuck his dark brown head out of his stall at Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse's barn on the Saratoga backstretch. Bright-eyed and inquisitive, he gobbled up a peppermint. If he could have spoken, he might have said, 'what's the big deal? I feel fine." About 15 1/2 hours prior, he wasn't. After winning Saratoga's fourth race on Wednesday and returning to...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was a low-key celebration for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott Saturday night after Sovereignty (Into Mischief) continued his stampede through the 3-year-old male division. "Put a couple hamburgers on the grill," Mott said, sitting at his desk in his office at the Oklahoma Training Track on a soggy Sunday morning at Saratoga. "Good hamburgers, by the way. They were from Fresh Market. That was it. Then early to bed." When Mott got his barn Sunday morning, he looked down his shedrow and saw the...

It was overcast and foggy, but weather was not going to stop her as Daisy Flyer (Mshawish) flew home in the final yards to take the GIII Lake George Stakes at Saratoga. Sent to George 'Rusty' Arnold as a juvenile, she ran a flat eighth last summer on unveiling July 21 at Ellis Park, but produced her first inkling of the dramatic final kick in her Sept. 5 graduation at Kentucky Downs when she won the photo by a head. When her connections stepped her up into the GII Miss...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - So far, trainer Joe Sharp has done little wrong at the Thoroughbred meet at Saratoga. If you've been following along, you know he has won six races with his first 15 starters. You might not know that he is also doing ok across the street at the harness track. Sharp has been moonlighting as a harness owner at night--along with former jockey Taylor Rice, the wife of jockey Jose Ortiz. They own a pair of pacers named Virgin Honor and Legal Bettor and they will both...

Despite the fact that Journalism (Curlin) became the first of his generation to earn as many as three elite-level victories with his thrilling success in the GI NYRABets Haskell Stakes last weekend, Godolphin's Sovereignty (Into Mischief) remains at the head of this year's sophomore class by virtue of convincing head-to-head tallies in the GI Kentucky Derby on May 3 and when last seen in the GI Belmont Stakes right here at Saratoga on June 7. But the argument can be made that Saturday's GII Jim Dandy Stakes at the Spa...