Trainer Mark Casse sending three strong contenders to Queen’s Plate
TORONTO — Mark Casse will have three real shots at earning a second career Queen’s Plate win.
Casse, Canada’s top trainer the last seven years and 10 times overall, will send Plate Trial winner Telekinesis, Woodbine Oaks runner-up Wonder Gadot and Neepawa to the starting gate June 30 at Woodbine Racetrack. Casse was originally pointing Flameaway, who was 13th in the 2018 Kentucky Derby, to the Plate but the Ontario-bred three-year-old will run in the Grade 3, US$500,000 Ohio Derby as the 5-2 early favourite Saturday at Thistledown.
“Flameaway spent his early career on Tapeta (the surface of Woodbine’s main track) and he just acted like a horse on it,” said Casse, who won the 2014 Plate with filly Lexie Lou. “In other words he didn’t train extremely well, so we had some concerns with him handling it and had to make a decision.
“If we went to the Queen’s Plate, it would throw us out of the dirt picture in the U.S. What this does now is set you up for the Haskell or Travers, which are Grade 1 races, and from a stallion’s perspective it could increase your horse’s value.”