Mark Casse confident of Stealcase chances in the Spiral Stakes
Stealcase, who broke his maiden at third asking at Gulfstream Park and then finished 6th in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes to winner, Hansen, at Aqueduct on 3 March, 2012, will be going for the Grade 3, $500,000 Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park, over a distance of 1 1/8 miles on poly track on 24 March, 2012, for trainer Mark Casse.
Mark Casse, who has become one of the preeminent trainers at Woodbine Canada, where the most used surface is poly track since August 2006, knows a thing or two about the surface and how to go about it, and that is where he might have an edge against other trainers going for the Spiral Stakes.
He has been busy training, Stealcase, the way he wants him to be, come the race day, where he will be facing a full field of 12, 3-year-old horses . Though Stealcase has neither raced over a distance of 1 1/8 miles, over which the Spiral Stakes is run, nor over a synthetic surface, but he has been training on poly track right after the Gotham Stakes, and Casse believes that his 3-year-old will be a major threat in the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes.
Inclusion of Alpha is going to make things interesting, but a sixth place in the Gotham doesn’t really speak volumes of his chances in an equally or could be marginally tougher race than the Gotham Stakes.
Owned by John C. Oxley, Stealcase is the Kentucky bred son of Lawyer Ron, out of mare Steal The Show by Cat Thief, and according to Casse, he lost all advantage in the beginning of the race.
Despite being Gotham speed biased, the plan was to get Stealcase right up there with pace, but his stumble at the gate made him lose all the advantage, but Mark Casse believed if that wasn’t the case than he would have given the second place finisher, My Adonis, a run for his money.
Even with a serious excuse, Stealcase has to step up and show that he is made of tough metal and can endure different pressure situations at different venues against different, yet threatening runners.
Tags: