Casse’s Runners Ready for Oaklawn Stakes
Trainer Mark Casse has a division at Oaklawn for the first time this year and he could celebrate a big holiday weekend with Dixie Strike and Coastline, both of whom carry the blue and gold silks of owner John Oxley.
Dixie Strike, who competed against the boys in all three legs of the 2012 Canadian Triple Crown with a third in the Queen’s Plate and a victory in the Prince of Wales Stakes, will run in the Pippin Stakes Saturday and Street Sense Stakes winner Coastline will contest the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes for 3-year-olds on Monday.
“Dixie Strike is doing really well, but Don’t Tell Sophia is going to be awfully tough,” Casse said. “Our filly has trained well on the dirt at Palm Meadows and when we breezed her at Oaklawn and she did really well. We think she likes the dirt even though she’s only run twice on it. She won the Prince of Wales on it and the horse she beat, Ultimate Destiny, ended up being a very good horse.”
The 5yo daughter of Dixie Union out of the Smart Strike mare Noble Strike worked over the Oaklawn strip on Jan. 12 when she traveled 5f in 1.03.80 for the 11th fastest work of 103 horses at the distance. The move sets her ups as a strong challenger to Don’t Tell Sophia as the Phil Sims-trainee tries to defend her title in the Pippin.
“I would expect a big effort from her,” said Casse of Dixie Strike, who was third in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes behind Eclipse Award winners My Miss Aurelia and Questing as a sophomore.
The Smarty Jones, which is named for the colt who captured all three legs of Oaklawn’s renowned series for sophomores- the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes, the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes and the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby- on the way to victories in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes in 2004, is the first true test for 3-year-olds at the meet.
The one-mile affair also serves as a prep for the Southwest to be contested at 1 1/16 miles on Feb. 17 and Casse hopes that Coastline will get better racing luck than he did last time out when he stumbled out of the gate in the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot at Delta Downs on Nov. 23.
“He lost all chances that day but if you go to his previous race (the Street Sense at Churchill Downs on Oct. 27), it was a great race. The second, third and fourth finishers came back to win their next starts and he beat them pretty convincingly,” Casse said. “We gave him just a little bit of a break and then we sent him to Palm Meadows and he breezed a couple of time there. He’s been at Oaklawn now for about 10 days and he worked really well the other day under Eurico (Rosa Da Silva).
Regular ride Shaun Bridgmohan will be back in the irons on Monday.