Woodbine’s perennial leading trainer MARK CASSE had quite the last five racing days around the U.S. His stable won eight of 29 starts and five of those wins came yesterday, Sunday, Jan. 26. Four of those wins came at Gulfstream Park.
It was a loss at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, however, that was surely the most exciting for Casse, despite being a trouble-filled race for one of his pupils.
SANDMAN, a pretty grey colt by Tapit who cost $1.2 million as a two-year-old in training at the 2024 March Ocala sale, had a remarkable second-place finish in the $1 million Southwest Stakes after a botched beginning.
Owned by D.J. Stables, St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds and CJ Stables (Chuck Sonson), Sandman bobbed, stumbled and propped out of the gate and lost several lengths at the start of the 1/16 mile race. The colt, ridden by Cristian Torres, was last into the backstretch while the front-runner, Speed King, went 47 4/5 for half a mile. Sandman put in a heroic run to be second by a length to Speed King.
A winner twice in six races as a juvenile, Sandman earned a career best 92 Beyer Speed Figure for his Southwest run. The Southwest in a prep for Oaklawn’s Arkansas Derby (G1), a major Kentucky Derby prep.
Another horse with local interest, EARHART (Fr) also didn’t have a great beginning to her first big test. Trained by Josie Carroll, the undefeated grey was 3-to-5 for the Likely Exchange Stakes on Friday, Jan. 24 at Turfway Park. The race had been postponed for a couple of weeks due to bad weather.
Earhart and jockey Luis Contreras fell back after the start and then rushed up with an inside longshot to the first turn and another rival on her outside. She then was all in, rolling through an inside pace battle with She’s Fancy (who ended up eighth), fought on well into the stretch, but landed third behind Everland, who rallied up the rail to win.