Casse Takes Two Shots in San Clemente

Trainer Mark Casse, who has a full stable of horses at Del Mar for the first time this summer, is taking two shots to make the track’s stakes-winning trainer list in Saturday’s $200,000, Grade II San Clemente Handicap.

The six-time Sovereign Award winner in Canada will saddle My Conquestadory (9-2) and Tepin (20-1) in the one-mile test for 3-year-old fillies over the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

My Conquestadory, a daughter of Artie Schiller, won the Grade I Alcibiades and was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf as a 2-year-old and was narrowly edged in the Grade III Selene in her 2014 debut in May at Woodbine. Tepin, a daughter of Bernstein, won the Princess Stakes at Delta Downs last November but has a pair of eighth-place finishes this year.

“They’re both doing well. I was pleased with the way they trained this morning,” Casse said Friday. Casse arrived on Thursday but missed the opening day scene while getting settled in with his family at the house they’ll occupy for the duration of the meeting.

“I wish we had a little better post with My Conquestadory (No. 12).  She’ll have a lot to overcome from the outside post, but I feel like she’s ready and if she runs to her ability, she’ll be tough.

“(Tepin) had a really tough trip the last time. She ended up last but she went to come up the inside, looked like she was going to be right there, then she  got bumped and hit the hedge. I expect her to run well.”

The San Clemente field, from the rail out. Tiz the Key (Tyler Baze, 8-1), Tepin  (Stewart Elliott, 20-1), Miss Machiavelli (Kent Desormeaux, 20-1), Diversy Harbor (Mike Smith, 7-2), Concave (Mario Gutierrez, 20-1), Sushi Empire (Corey Nakatani, 20-1), Sandiva (Martin Garcia, 5-1), Istanford (Rafael Bejarano, 8-1), Morning Fix (Elvis Trujillo, 6-1), Sheza Smoke Show (Joe Talamo, 6-1), Tiz Kissable (Dennis Carr, 15-1) and My Conquestadory (Victor Espinoza, 9-2).