Off-turf Bourbon Stakes winner Flameaway Breeders' Cup-bound

John Oxley’s Flameaway, winner of Sunday’s off-the-turf Dixiana Bourbon, received a glowing report on his status the morning after the performance from David Carroll, assistant to trainer Mark Casse.

“He came back fine and ate up everything,” Carroll said of Flameaway, whose victory made Casse the first trainer to win the race three consecutive years.

The main question yesterday was whether to run Flameaway in the Dixiana Bourbon after the race was moved off the grass because nearly 24 hours of constant rain had saturated the turf course.

“My vote was to go because he was training so well,” Carroll said. “He had trained like a different horse since the Iroquois (G3 at Churchill Downs on Sept. 16).”

In the Iroquois, Flameaway was sixth in a field of 10, beaten 12¼ lengths.

“In the Iroquois, he was jumping up and down trying to avoid the kickback,” Carroll said. “At Saratoga, he just skipped over the mud (in winning the Skidmore, another race rained off the turf).”

Casse, who returned to Ocala, Florida, Sunday night, said via text that Flameaway would remain at Keeneland to train for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) to be run Nov. 3 at Del Mar.

Flameaway received a fees-paid berth to the race from the Breeders’ Cup even though the “Win and You’re In” race was moved off the grass.

“I doubt we would have gone (to the Breeders’ Cup) without the Win and You’re In,” Casse said via text.

SOURCE: Keeneland release