Multiple Sovereign Award-winning trainer Mark Casse is only 44 starts into his 2012 campaign, but there are a number of storylines developing as the conditioner looks to improve on his record-setting 2011 season at Woodbine.
Although the Woodbine thoroughbred campaign doesn't get underway until April 1, there are still plenty of intruiging questions for Casse, who set the Toronto oval standard with 119 wins in 2011, and his impressive stable of stars.
Is Dixie Strike, a talented half-sister to 2011 Queen’s Plate winner Inglorious, going to follow in her big sister’s footsteps?
Will Prospective continue to improve and earn a chance to redeem his lacklustre Breeders’ Cup Juvenile effort with a Kentucky Derby run?
And what about the six other horses under Casse’s care nominated to the U.S Triple Crown? Just how good are they? And how does Woodbine’s leading jockey Luis Contreras, the regular rider of a number of the nominated colts, fit into the picture?
Casse shared his thoughts on the current campaign from Florida, where he enjoyed a busy, and productive, weekend at Tampa Bay Downs which included a win in the Florida Oaks by Dixie Strike and a rousing second-place effort from Prospective in the Grade 3 Sam Davis Stakes. Both horses are owned by John C. Oxley.
Read More