Well-traveled Fev Rover may win Beverly D. for team Casse

New Kent, Va.

On a winding road that took her from her native Ireland through England, France, Bahrain and finally to North America, 5-year-old Fev Rover had not proven she belonged in Grade 1 company.

That all changed this summer between July 1 and 15.

“To run as well as she did, we think that she ran absolutely fantastic,” said Nick Tomlinson, who is trainer Mark Casse’s assistant at Colonial Downs. That is where Fev Rover is the 2-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $500,000 Beverly D. (G1). Now down to five entrants, the 1 3/16-mile race will qualify the winner for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

As a Grade 2 winner last summer, the daughter of Gutaifan had modest enough credentials before July 1, when she came off a nine-month layoff to win the Nassau (G2) by 4 1/4 lengths on a yielding course at Woodbine. Exactly two weeks later, she overcame gate issues to finish a tantalizingly close third in the Diana (G1) at Saratoga.

“I thought her race up at Woodbine was extremely impressive,” Tomlinson said. “I mean she won just under wraps, and to be able to come back off of two weeks and repeat another big performance. She just got a little bit of time between her last race and this race. I think she’s definitely sitting on a good race.”

A Group 2 winner in France as a 2-year-old in Richard Fahey’s stable, Fev Rover cost Tracy Farmer $971,704 at a sale in England 1 1/2 years ago. After Farmer transferred her to Casse, she came off an eight-month break to go 3: 1-1-0 last year on the Woodbine turf, the win coming in the Canadian (G2).

About to make her 17th start, Fev Rover will race Saturday on her 12th track. It is one that she might not know, but Tomlinson certainly does, especially the big, sweeping turns on the 1 1/8-mile, outer-turf course on which the Beverly D. and the 1 1/4-mile Arlington Million (G1) will be run Saturday.

“It’s almost like riding at Belmont, where it’s a mile-and-a-half, and you’re going into the turn,” Tomlinson said. “You’re at the half-mile pole as opposed to the three-eighths pole. Maybe that can be confusing, but I think the riders are top-notch riders, and they should know when to go.”

Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who has not competed at Colonial since the track’s 2019 reopening and last raced on it in 2013, keeps the assignment on Fev Rover after riding her for the first time in the Diana.

Castellano also will ride Strong Quality, one of Casse’s pair of two-time allowance winners who are 4-year-old long shots in the Arlington Million. The $500,000 Quality Road colt owned by Gary Barber and Jessica Steinbrenner’s Kinsman Stable set the early pace before finishing fifth last out in the 1 1/4-mile Manhattan (G1) on the Belmont Stakes undercard.

“He just went a little too fast up front in the beginning part of it,” Tomlinson said. “I had the horse during the wintertime at Palm Meadows. I don’t think he needs to have the lead. That’s just my opinion. Maybe Mark and Mr. Barber have different ideas for him, but listen, we’ll play the break, and we’ll see how it goes.”

Win for the Money, a $350,000 Mohaymen gelding owned by Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation, did not appear to Tomlinson to be ready for his assignment last month going 1 1/16 miles on the same turf as Saturday’s Million.

“I wasn’t 100 percent sure he was fit enough for the race, and he went out and won,” Tomlinson said. “He deserves to have a shot in this race.”

Tomlinson has been in charge of the team barn at Colonial Downs, where Casse put down stakes this summer for the first time. A member of the U.S. and Canada halls of fame, Casse went into Saturday as the second-leading trainer at this summer’s meet. His five victories trailed only Mike Trombetta’s six, and his 31 percent strike rate was the best for any barn with at least seven starts.

“We’ve done really well here this summer,” said Tomlinson, who grew up in Brantford, Ontario, and started working for Casse eight years ago. “Ever since being at Colonial, we really like it here. Horses have seemed to really thrive here. Whether it was the atmosphere, the surface or whatever, it’s a great place to be, honestly. We took horses out of Florida, and it was just like night and day within two weeks of being here.”

Tomlinson admitted in a recent interview that he actually stalked Casse at Keeneland when he was in search of a full-time job.

“I remember telling my wife Tina back at the hotel at Keeneland that I met a young man today who’s going to be a star,” Casse said Friday. “I just had that feeling. And he has been. He’s done a tremendous job. He’s an extremely hard worker, he’s a good horseman, and he’s a great person. He’s the entire package.”

One lesson that Tomlinson said he took from Casse is one that Casse took from the late 11-time England champion jockey Lester Pigott about tactical advice.

“You don’t give instructions,” Tomlinson said. “Lester Pigott once said that a good jockey doesn’t need instructions, and a bad one can’t follow them. So it’s best that you just don’t give them.”

That means Castellano will be on his own in the Beverly D. If he does as he did in the Diana, Fev Rover will be just off the lead. If she were to win Saturday, it would be the highlight of the Virginia summer for team Casse, especially since it would ticket her for the Breeders’ Cup. Not that Tomlinson was prepared to speak to that.

“That’s a little bit above my pay grade,” he said. “That’s a good question for Mark. We’ll see what happens Saturday.”