Blueblood powers Casse’s strong start with juveniles

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Leading trainer Mark Casse is off to a quick start in 2-yearold racing at Woodbine this season, with eight wins from 24 starts. Two victories have come from Blueblood, who is now 2 for 2 after winning the Victoria Stakes on July 8 by three-quarters of a length over five furlongs on the Tapeta.

Blueblood, a $300,000 purchase by Casse and owner Fox Hill Farm at last September’s Keeneland yearling sale, has a few options available. Casse said Blueblood could stay at Woodbine and train up to the $125,000 Clarendon Stakes over 5 1/2 furlongs on Tapeta for Ontario-bred 2-year-olds on Aug. 5, but a start at Saratoga is not out of the question.

“It’s just whether we stay and run in the Clarendon,” he said. “I’ve talked to [owner Rick Porter] about possibly taking him to Saratoga to run him.”

Casse said at some point, Blueblood will end up running on turf, and a race such as the Grade 2, $200,000 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 17 could be a target. The winner of the Summer Stakes will earn a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 3.

“Our feeling is his future is on the turf,” Casse said. “He gets over the Tapeta, but our experience with him so far in the way he trains is he’s much, much better on the turf.”

Grizzel targets Ontario Colleen

Grade 3 Selene Stakes winner Grizzel was a 39-1 longshot when she traveled to Belmont Park for the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks on July 8, but her fifth-place finish after holding the lead in the stretch pleased trainer Mike Doyle.

“She ran great,” he said. “It’s unfortunate she didn’t place. I really thought she could run well, and she did. The way it set up, they ran so much faster earlier in the race than they did in the Belmont Derby. She may be suspect in going that far. A mile and an eighth might be as far as she wants to go.”

After the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Oaks, Doyle is looking to cut Grizzel back in distance and has targeted the Grade 3, $125,000 Ontario Colleen Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over a mile on the Woodbine turf Aug. 27.

“She’s back at Woodbine, and we’re aiming her at the Ontario Colleen,” Doyle said. “If everything goes good, then the La Lorgnette, and then we get on the road again.”

The La Lorgnette, on Sept. 30 over 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta, would be the final opportunity for the Irish-bred daughter of Kodiac to race against 3-year-old fillies at Woodbine since she’s not eligible for Ontario-bred or Ontario-sired restricted stakes.

Go Bro has options

Go Bro notched a massive upset at 44-1 when he won the Grade 2 King Edward Stakes for trainer Mike Keogh and owner and breeder Gustav Schickedanz on the Queen’s Plate card July 2.

It was the first graded stakes score for the 6-year-old son of Proud Citizen, who appears to have found a niche going long. Go Bro made eight starts in 2016, all in sprints, and picked up two victories. He then started in the Jacques Cartier Stakes on opening day April 15, but following that start, Keogh decided to change things up.

“I ran him in the Jacques Cartier, and he didn’t run any good,” he said. “I just figured I should try him long because he hadn’t run long in a while. I worked him a mile twice in a row, two weeks apart, out on the dirt, and he worked extremely well both times. That’s why I ran him in that allowance race going a mile and a sixteenth, and he ran huge in there.”

Go Bro matched his careerbest 90 Beyer Speed Figure when he ran second to eventual Grade 3 Dominion Day Stakes winner Melmich in that allowance race May 31. From there, Keogh decided to give turf another shot, and Go Bro was pointed to the King Edward Stakes. Go Bro had finished second to My Conquestadory in the Grade 2 Summer Stakes on the Woodbine turf as a 2-year-old in 2013.

Moving forward, Go Bro’s preference to run long and his ability to run on turf provide some options. While Go Bro is nominated to this weekend’s Grade 2, $175,000 Nijinsky Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on turf, Keogh said a more likely spot is the Grade 3, $125,000 Seagram Cup over 1 1/16 miles on Woodbine’s Tapeta on Aug. 13.

“It’s kind of up in the air,” he said. “I nominated him to the Nijinsky, but I’m not sure if he’d want to go a mile and a quarter. We might try the mile and a sixteenth on the Tapeta.”