Muskoka Gold early Plate prospect

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It’s never too early to start thinking about next year’s Queen’s Plate, and trainer Mark Casse already has several prospects for the classic race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

Muskoka Gold was a powerful-looking winner in just his second start of the $226,600 Cup and Saucer Stakes, traveling 1 1/16 miles on the grass Oct. 6. Casse said the Lea colt could be headed for the Grade 3 Grey on the Tapeta Oct. 27 in advance of another Tapeta route stakes here, the $225,000 Coronation Futurity Nov. 23.

“There’s an outside shot he may come back in the Grey,” Casse said. “They way it’s spaced now, I could run him in the Grey and come back in the Coronation.”

Muskoka Giant, like Muskoka Gold owned by Conrad Farms, finished 11th in the Cup and Saucer after coming close to earning his diploma in his first two starts.

“He’s better than that,” Casse said. “I feel like he’s going in the wrong direction, so he’s coming home and we’ll give him part of the winter off. There’s an outside shot he could be a Queen’s Plate horse next year. I’ll try to run him once or twice in the wintertime.”

◗ Skygaze, a promising Kentucky-bred daughter of American Pharoah, has been shipped to Churchill Downs, according to Casse. She graduated second time out in a fast seven-furlong maiden special here Aug. 30, and was disqualified from first to third for interference in the Grade 3 Mazarine Oct. 5, when she earned an 82 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I’m going to see how she trains over the dirt,” Casse said. “She had trained really well in the spring on the dirt. I sent her [to Woodbine] because she’d had some trouble at the gate. I felt more comfortable with her up there. I thought the gate crew would take their time with her, and they did a good job.”

Casse said he’s looking at the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Nov. 30 as a possible next start for Skygaze, who is owned by Tracy Farmer.

◗ Curlin’s Honor ended a drought when Casse found a cozy spot for him in an Oct. 6 second-level optional claimer going 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf, which he won comfortably as the heavy favorite. A $1.5 million 2-yearold purchase, the 4-year-old placed in a series of graded stakes here this year on turf and the Tapeta, including a heartbreaking loss in the Grade 2 King Edward, where he appeared to idle on the lead in deep stretch.

“He showed some progression from 3 to this year, and I think he’ll continue to do that, being by Curlin,” Casse said. “As long as he stays healthy, he could be a really good horse next year – a good miler on the turf.”