Casse excited for Belmont champ Sir Winston to resume training

Sir Winston’s recovery from an ankle injury has resulted in the first extended break of the 3-year-old’s racing career.

The Awesome Again colt was last seen by racing fans June 8 when jockey Joel Rosario guided him to a perfect trip and a Belmont Stakes triumph.

Days later, trainer Mark Casse and his team shut Sir Winston down for the rest of the summer after discovering an ankle injury.

“Well, the interesting thing, he ran in the (Belmont) and he was fine,” Casse said last week. “But he had a little feeling in an ankle a couple days after.

“Before we trained him, we took some precautionary X-rays and he was sitting on something that could’ve been major. We caught it. So he’ll come back 100 percent. If we had trained him, it could’ve been catastrophic.”

Casse spoke last week with owner Tracy Farmer about a time table for Sir Winston’s return to training, saying he could start later this month.

“There’s no rush because I just think he’s going to be an extremely good 4-year-old,” Casse said. “I don’t know. I’m still just playing it day by day, week by week.”

Sir Winston has 10 career starts under his belt. From his debut June 2018 at Churchill Downs to the 2019 Belmont, the Kentucky-bred colt never took more than two months between races.

While Sir Winston has rested up, Casse said he’s grown significantly.

“He was broken (to saddle) in September of his yearling year, and he’s raced pretty steadily and stayed in training until just after the Belmont,” Casse said. “So he was in training for a long time. I don’t know that he ever got a real chance to grow up.

“Just in the time he’s been off, he’s probably put on 100 pounds. He looks tremendous. So I’m excited about getting him back.”

Sir Winston sports a 10: 3-1-1 career record with $961,773 in earnings. His only stakes win besides the Belmont came last December as a 2-year-old in Woodbine’s listed Display Stakes.

After missing the board along the Kentucky Derby trail in Aqueduct’s Withers Stakes (G3), the Tampa Bay Derby (G2) and Keeneland’s Blue Grass Stakes (G2), Sir Winston prepped for the Belmont with a late-charging second in the Peter Pan Stakes (G3).

That set up Sir Winston’s try at Belmont Stakes, where he scored at 10-1 odds by a length over favored Tacitus.

“I think a horse like him, you’ve seen him get better and better as he’s gotten older,” Casse said. “If you look at his pattern, you’ve got to think as he gets older that he’s going to be even better.

“That’s our hopes and dreams, at least.”