Trainer Mark Casse gained the 1,999th North
American victory of his career on Friday, with Son of Oahu in the fourth race
at Belmont Park.
Casse has 13 horses entered today, at four tracks, and
it would take an incredible day of bad racing luck for him not to gain his 2,000th win.
Eight of those horses are entered at Gulfstream Park, where Casse’s
assistant trainer Jamie Begg is directing operations.
Casse has three horses entered today at Woodbine in Etobicoke,
Ont. He has single entrants at Churchill
Downs in Louisville, Ky., and at Belmont in Elmont, N.Y,
Gulfstream has an 11-race card with first post of 1:15
p.m.
Casse’s first entrant of the day is Reimburse, in the
second at Gulfstream with scheduled post of 1:46 p.m.
It is a $50,000 claiming race at one mile on turf for
fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, with a $30,000 purse.
Reimburse is
the 5-2 morning line favorite in the eight-horse field.
She has one win in six career starts. In her last race, on April 17 at Gulfstream,
she finished third in a $50,000 claiming race at 7 ½ furlongs on turf. Tyler
Gaffalione has the return mount.
Today’s field also has Tizjet, who finished a nose
ahead of Reimburse on April 17. Edgard Zayas has the return mount for trainer
Juan Rodriguez.
Casse has two horses entered in the fifth race, which
has today’s most interesting story line at Gulfstream.
It is a $62,500 optional claimer at one mile on turf
for 3-year-olds and up. The purse is
$44,000.
One Casse runner is Conquest Pacemaker, owned by his
long-time client Conquest Stables.
The other is Jacks or Better Farm’s Best Plan Yet, who
will be making his first start for Casse.
Stan Gold, Best Plan Yet’s previous trainer, will send
out My Point Exactly. The race will be that horse’s first for Gold.
Through early last month Jacks or Better used Gold as
its exclusive trainer in Florida, with considerable success especially in 2-YO
races. Last month, for reasons not fully disclosed publicly, Jacks or Better
owner Fred Brei moved all of his approximately 20 horses to Casse.
Since then Gold has taken on horses from several other
owners, including former partners of the recently retired trainer Bill Kaplan.
My Point Exactly is owned by a partnership headed by Pinnacle Racing Stables
and was previously trained by Kaplan.
Neither My Point Exactly nor Best Plan Yet are in for
the tag.
Both are dropping from stakes races and should be
among the favorites along with Quiet Force, who is trained by Peter Walder.
Casse is a seven-time winner of the Sovereign Award as
Canada’s top trainer.
Assisted by his son Norman Casse and by Begg, Casse has bases at Woodbine and at
Gulfstream and also races regularly at the
major New York tracks and in graded stakes around the United States.
--Jim Freer
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