Exclusive Love Hopes Grass is Greener at GP
A cursory glance at the past-performance lines of Exclusive Love might
lead handicappers to assume that she is a filly with a history of
physical problems. The many gaps between her races, though, have nothing
to do with soundness and everything to do with weather.
“She’s The Rainmaker,” said trainer Mark Casse, explaining Exclusive Love’s inconsistent racing schedule.
The 5-year-old daughter of Bernstein, weather permitting, is scheduled
to run in Saturday’s $100,000 Marshua’s River (G3) over the Gulfstream
Park turf course.
“The filly’s owner, Robert Masterson, has to be the most patient guy
there is. We were thinking of renting her out to anywhere that needed
rain, like Texas. I think 10 times when we had her entered in a race, it
rained and the race came off the grass and we had to scratch her,”
Casse said. “That’s why you see all the time between her races. It’s all
because of races being taken off the grass.”
Last winter at Gulfstream, Casse didn’t scratch Exclusive Love from an
off-the-turn allowance race that was run over a sloppy track. The
Irish-bred mare struggled so much that it would be her last appearance
on a main track, and unfortunately, there were many opportunities.
“She’s never been out of training, other than after her 2-year-old
year. When you see the gaps, it’s all because races she was in came off
the turf. I’ve never had a horse –and I’ve been training for 35 years –
get in and have to be scratched so many times because races were taken
off the grass,” Casse said.
Exclusive Love demonstrated enough ability at Woodbine during her
3-year-old year that Casse sent her to Saratoga for the Lakes George
Stakes (G2). Forced to race wide after breaking from an outside post
position, Exclusive Love made the lead in the stretch, only to
relinquish it by three quarters of a length at the finish to Perfect
Shirl, who would go on to win this year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare
Turf.
Compromised by an oft-interrupted schedule, it took Exclusive Love six
more starts to find the winner’s circle, capturing an allowance race at
Churchill Downs in her most recent start on Nov. 9.
“It’s very difficult to train a horse like her when you never know when
she’s going to be able to run,” Casse said. “We were going to run her
at Keeneland, but she didn’t get in. The race ended up overfilling. So
she missed some time and trying to enter her. Finally, we went into the
Churchill race at probably 75 percent. We didn’t feel like she was at
her best, which I was impressed with.”
Casse is hoping for blue skies and a repeat effort in the Marshua’s River.
Although he has no intention of ever running Exclusive Love on dirt,
Casse has hopes that Delightful Mary will show herself to be a strong
main-track performer in Sunday’s $60,000 Ocala, a mile stakes for
Florida-bred fillies and mares. Although the 4-year-old daughter of
Limehouse has won four of six races over synthetic racing surfaces, she
made a strong showing in her only dirt appearance while finishing third
in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs.
“The Juvenile Fillies ended up to be a pretty good race when you look
at Awesome Feather and R Heat Lightning,” said Casse of the two fillies
that finished in front of Delightful Mary in the Breeders Cup.
Delightful Mary made a wide move on the turn and held position through the stretch-run.
“We have some questions about how far this filly wants to go, but she
did run well in the Breeders’ Cup going a mile and a sixteenth. So the
mile shouldn’t be a problem,” Casse said.
Delightful Mary is coming off a sharp allowance victory over Woodbine’s Polytrack surface on Nov. 17.
“It’s very different for Polytrack horses at Gulfstream. So I can only
judge by Churchill Downs, where she trained well, and the way she ran in
the Breeders’ Cup,” Casse said. “At Palm Meadows, she’s breezed very
well there. I don’t really have any concerns. I think she’ll handle the
track just fine. I feel like I’ve got enough work in her over the dirt
that she’ll be just fine.”
If Delightful Mary runs well in the Ocala, she is likely to return in
the $300,000 Florida Sunshine Millions Distaff at Gulfstream on Jan. 28.