Casse: Kentucky Derby 'makes the most sense' for Helium

The next stop for Helium, the upset winner of Saturday's Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby, likely will be the Kentucky Derby, trainer Mark Casse said Sunday.

"it's not set in stone, but I think it probably makes the most sense," Casse told HRN.

The Tampa Bay Derby was only the third race for the undefeated son of Ironicus and his first since the Display Stakes on Oct. 18 at Woodbine. It also was his first start on dirt.

That long break is part of the reason Casse is leaning against another Derby prep for Helium, who will be a supplemental nominee for the Triple Crown.

"The problem is, you know, he had such a long, long time in between races that this race may end up taking a little bit more out of him than normal," Casse said. "And so the question is — he's running back and it would be a little too quick back. So we don't have a lot of options. And like I said, I'm not saying 100 percent sure that we're not going to run him back. But I don't know. He ran so well off the layoff. He's definitely not a horse that has to run all the time."

The Tampa Bay Derby was not originally in the cards for Helium's 2021 debut.

"We sent him down to New Orleans to do that series — you know, the Lecomte and whatever," Casse said. "He wrenched his ankle after his last breeze (a five-furlong work at Fair Grounds on Dec. 27), and so we were concerned about it. So we went ahead and brought him home (to Casse Training Center in Ocala, Fla.). And he recovered so quickly that I put him back in training. And, you know, he's trained great since and I worked him a few times, and he really gets over the dirt well, and so we figured we'd give it a shot."

Casse said it wasn't a serious setback for Helium.

"We have a cold water spa at our training facility in Ocala. And I just, I just wanted to bring him home, be close to me. And he didn't miss hardly any training. And we went and put him back. And so so I didn't want to send him back to New Orleans because it's a little farther, a bit away. So I said, well, I'll send him down to our Palm Meadows division, because it's only three hours away. If his ankle flared back up, we would have brought him home again, but he's done very well."

And Helium is very easy to work with, Casse said.

"He's a perfect gentleman, does everything nice. Good-moving horse, great attitude. We shipped him in yesterday morning from Palm Meadows to Tampa, and he got there and lay down and slept most of the afternoon. I don't know if you've seen him, but he's beautiful, too. He's a beautiful horse."

Casse said Soup and Sandwich, an Into Mischief colt who is 2-for-2, will start next in the Florida Derby (G1) with Johnny Velazquez aboard, seeking a share of the 100-40-20-10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points.

And Gretzky the Great, who earned two Derby points by finishing third in the John E. Battaglia Memorial, will return at Turfway in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) which also offers 100-40-20-10 Derby points.

"I thought he ran very well after a long layoff," Casse said. "So we were expecting, you know, a big effort. It's funny, he's a Nyquist, and he's never run on the dirt yet, which is hard to believe."