Heavenly Love tops successful start to Keeneland meet for Casse

Trainer Mark Casse enjoyed a tremendous opening day to the Keeneland Fall Meet on Friday with three victories headlined by Heavenly Love’s 5½-length romp in the Darley Alcibiades (G1).

However, he did not see a single race live.

“I was supposed to leave Gainesville (Florida) at 6 in the morning but they were having trouble with the plane,” Casse said. “I knew Ian Brennan, who runs the Stonestreet operation in Ocala, was (flying) up and asked him if I could hitch a ride.

“I watched the first two wins (Gio Game in the first and Magical Sky in the fifth) from my office in Ocala. We were circling Keeneland when they were having the trophy presentation for the Alcibiades.

“I watched the race on my iPad and when we dropped below 10,000 feet, that was it for the iPad.”

The victory earned Heavenly Love a berth in the $2 million 14 Hands Winery Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) to be run Nov. 4 at Del Mar. It was the second win in three starts for Heavenly Love, who is owned by her breeder, Debby Oxley.

Heavenly Love debuted going 5 furlongs on the dirt at Gulfstream Park on June 24, finishing third, before breaking her maiden going 6 furlongs on the turf at Kentucky Downs.

“I am going to start doing that a lot more,” Casse said of the Gulfstream debut. “Ocala is only four hours from Gulfstream. I will get them started down there. After her first race, I shipped her up here to Churchill Downs.”

At Churchill, Heavenly Love trained well on the dirt but Casse took her to Kentucky Downs.

“There were 135,000 reasons,” Casse said of the purse value of the race at Kentucky Downs. “But that race allowed us to make the Alcibiades. If I had waited to run at Churchill (in September), it would have been two weeks later and that would have been a little too much to make the Alcibiades.”

Casse said Heavenly Love would have all her pre-Breeders’ Cup work at Keeneland and go to California five days before the Breeders’ Cup as he did last year.

Heavenly Love may not be the only Casse runner aiming for that race.

“I’d like to take Gio Game,” Casse said of the John Oxley-owned daughter of Gio Ponti who broke her maiden in the opener by nine lengths in a faster time than the Darley Alcibiades.

“That was the same race that Valadorna broke her maiden in last year and she went on to the Breeders’ Cup and only got beat three-quarters of a length,” Casse said. “So, we could have Mr. Oxley versus Mrs. Oxley.”

Live Oak Plantation’s Dancing finished third in the Darley Alcibiades for Casse.

“I’d like to take her to the (Breeders’ Cup) Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) but I don’t think she would get in,” Casse said of Dancing, who is winless in four starts on the dirt. “I can’t wait to get her on the grass.”

Trainer Kenny McPeek was second with favored Princess Warrior, who is his seventh horse to finish second in the Darley Alcibiades. He said the filly, who made a late run, is a definite possibility for the Juvenile Fillies.

“We are seriously considering the Breeders’ Cup. It is the next logical step,” McPeek said. “She was a little wide in the second turn and I think we can close the gap between us and the winner in her next start.”

Trainer Brad Cox said Zayat Stables’ Sassy Sienna and Dawn and Ike Thrash’s Kelly’s Humor, the respective fourth- and fifth-place finishers, came out of the race well.

“They will go back to Churchill Downs,” Cox said. “I’m not sure what I will do with them but they had no excuse. They were just not good enough.”

Source: Keeneland Association