On a warm and blustery day at Woodbine, September 11, the leading stable, that of trainer Mark Casse, won four of 10 races including both stakes events. That brings the Casse team’s total to 62 wins at the 2021 meeting, well in front of Kevin Attard who has 23 and Josie Carroll (who won two on Saturday) and Martin Drexler who have 21. The 62 wins at Woodbine amount to some 40% of his 2021 total of 145.
It was the victory by the 4-year-old bay ridgling TAP IT TO WIN in the Grade 3 Seagram Cup that was most surprising of the day as the well traveled Tapit son got away with a slow pace and held off Horse of the Year Mighty Heart to win by 1 3/4 lengths.
The splits,, :25.70 and :49.05. were surprising since Mighty Heart is a natural front runner but Larry Cordes’ colt was taken back to track Tapit it to Win, owned and bred by Love Oak Plantation.
It was not possible for any of the four rivals behind Tapit it to Win to gain as Rafael Hernandez stole away with the race for Casse and co. Tap it to Win was 9 to 2 and paid $11.40 to win. The Florida bred was coming into the 1 1/16 mile Seagram off four dull outings on turf and in sprints at Churchill Downs. He had won the Sprint Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in his season debut. This was his 5th win in 14 races.
Mighty Heart was second over Special Forces.
Hernandez and Casse came right back and won the Vice Regent Stakes for Ontario sired turf sprinters with NOT SO QUIET (Silent Name (Jpn)) for Heste Sport.
The six-year-old came into the $150,000 five-furlong Inner Turf race off a third-place effort in the Grade 3 Vigil Stakes on August 1 at Woodbine.
Sent off as the 7-5 choice, Not So Quiet, trained by Mark Casse, was shuffled back at the outset, and sat sixth as longshots Rockcrest and Alacritous took the field through an opening quarter-mile timed in :21.72.
Rockcrest, longest shot on the board at 44-1, was still calling the shots as the field straightened for home, while Hernandez looked for room to take aim at the leader, eventually finding a seam along the inside.
At the wire, Not So Quiet was a 1 ½-length winner, with a game Rockcrest taking second, 1 ½-lengths ahead of City Boy.
“The plan was to be close to the pace because with five-eighths you have to be on the engine,” said Hernandez, who teamed with Casse earlier on the card to take the Seagram Cup aboard Tap It to Win. “But the horse next to me, the seven (City Boy) in the gate, he was acting a little weird and then my horse started to get nervous. They opened the gate and he came out a little bit slowly from what we wanted to do, but we came up with Plan B, and then everything came out good.”
The final time over firm going was :56.25.
“He’s great,” said Hernandez. “He’s a racehorse anywhere you want to put him. You ask him what to do and he’ll do it.”
It was a return to winning form for Not So Quiet, who rhymed off two straight scores to complete his 2020 campaign, taking the Vice Regent on October 4 and Overskate Stakes on October 31.
The gelding, who broke his maiden first time out on July 18, 2018, now sports a mark of 7-0-2 from 15 starts.
Not So Quiet paid $5 for the win.
The other two Casse winners were the 2-year-old first time starter AUBRIETA, a filly by Speightster – Amathea by Henny Hughes, owned and bred by Conrad Stable and ridden by Patrick Husbands. Casse also won with the 3-year-old FROSTED OVER who won a wild finish in a 1 1/16 mile allowance race for his second win in five races. Frosted Over is owned by Gary Barber and Kazushi Kimura rode.
*Woodbine Entertainment board member MICHAEL LAY and owner/trainer DON MACRAE celebrated a win on Saturday with UNION COLONEL, who led all the way in a turf sprint to win his maiden with Kazushi Kimura riding. The Colonel John 4-year-old was favoured for the fourth straight race and came through to win by 2 1/4 lengths.
UNION COLONEL got a lot of pats after he won his maiden in race 6 at Woodbine on Saturday. Co-owned by trainer Don MacRae (far left) and Michael Lay (orange shirt) – JM
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