All calm after Got Stormy’s Fourstardave G1 score
NYRA Press Office
Gary Barber and Southern Equine Stables’ Got Stormy had her connections in positive spirits after the 4-year-old Get Stormy filly bested the boys in a 2 ½-length win in the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap on Saturday.
The Mark Casse trainee, who won the Fasig-Tipton De La Rose on August 3 at Saratoga, stormed back a week later to set a course record at one mile on the inner turf, stopping the clock in 1:32 flat (besting the previous mark of 1:33.13 set on August 2) and automatically qualifying for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile in November at Santa Anita Park.
With encouragement from Barber to race again off a quick turnaround, Got Stormy rewarded that faith by earning a careerbest 108 Beyer Speed Figure. Her sire, Get Stormy, had won the 2010 edition of the Fourstardave.
“She came back good and was real happy this morning,” Casse assistant Jamie Begg said. “I thought it was a big ask, but her numbers said it was good enough. That’s the first time she’s done it. There was every reason there to do it. People just don’t do it. If you do it and goes badly, you look dumb. But when it works out, it’s great.”
After the win, Casse was quick to credit Barber for having faith in Got Stormy, who became the first filly in 35 runnings of the Fourstardave to earn a trip to the winner’s circle.
“Mark’s not one to take credit. He said Gary was the one who made the decision,” Begg said. “[Mark] conditions the horse and got her in a position to succeed, but he said, ‘I’m not making that decision on my own.’”
Got Stormy is likely to make her next start against the boys once again in the Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile on September 14. Casse won the Woodbine Mile in 2016 with Tepin, who went on to finish second in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile; and again in 2017 with World Approval, who bested a field of 14 to win the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Begg said another Barber-owned Grade 1-winner is doing well in Preaknessvictor War of Will, who continues to train forwardly to the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on September 21 at Parx.
War of Will is getting some extra time between races after running fifth in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy on July 27 at the Spa. The War Front sophomore has undergone and extensive campaign in running in all three legs of the Triple Crown, placing seventh in the Kentucky Derby before besting Everfast by 1 ¼ lengths to capture the middle jewel. He ran ninth in the Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets in his last start before the Jim Dandy and will now look to benefit from a longer break instead of running back in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers on August 24.
“He’s doing good. He’s had a tough campaign, so I think the reason for the Pennsylvania Derby, besides the fact it could come up easier than the Travers, is giving him that extra time between starts to get him back up,” Begg said. “He’s just such a bear of a workhorse that you can’t tell that he’s run down, because he shows up in the morning to put in those works. When he races, it’s a different animal, and that’s when you see it. So, we’re trying to get him back up to where he was.”