2012 Champion Two-Year-Old Filly - Spring in the Air

Owner: John Oxley. Trainer: Mark Casse

Breeder: WinStar Farm (ON)

The journey for the connections began in March 2012, where Casse picked out Spring in the Air at the OBS Sale for Two-Year Olds in Training. He purchased the Ontario-bred daughter of Spring at Last for Oxley for $130,000.

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“I just loved the way she moved,” Casse said. “She was just an average looking horse but I thought she floated across the ground.”

While Oxley couldn’t be at the sale to see Spring in the Air in person, he trusts Casse’s eye when picking a horse out of a sale for his stable.

“He’s a great selector, a hard worker and has a great eye for the horse,” Oxley said. “I remember he said “Mr. Oxley, this is one we’ve got to have.” He could see that she had that kind of potential.”

Spring in the Air made her career debut in July at Woodbine in the Shady Well Stakes where she finished second behind Cryptic Message. But in her second start, she lived up to her potential while breaking her maiden by 10 _-lengths.

“I was shocked that she got beat (in the Shady Well),” Casse said. “When she came back and won by 10, I thought that’s what she would do the first time.”

After another second-place finish behind Spring Venture in the Grade II Natalma Stakes on turf, she proceeded on to Keeneland to win the Grade I Darley Alcibiades Stakes as the 4-1 favourite.

“It was great, especially for the Oxley’s because they live part-time in Lexington,” Casse said. “To win a grade I anywhere, and then to win it at Keeneland, was special.”

The moment meant so much to Oxley that he compared the feeling to winning the Kentucky Derby 11 years earlier.

“To have her go down to Keeneland, that’s sort of home base for us, and to win that grade I, I went back into orbit,” Oxley said. “I hadn’t been in orbit since I won the Kentucky Derby in 2001 with Monarchos. I went back into orbit with that grade I win by Spring in the Air.”

From there, the connections went on to Santa Anita for the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on dirt. It was the first year that two-year olds were not allowed to run on Lasix at the Breeders’ Cup, and Casse discovered that Spring in the Air had bled when she returned to the barn after finishing fifth in the race. The situation was especially tough for Oxley, who had experienced a significant high with Spring in the Air just three weeks earlier.

“The racing game is a roller coaster of emotion and that was a pretty big low,” he said. “I was guarded about going out there and running without Lasix and it didn’t work out. She bled pretty badly, it set us back a lot.”

Spring in the Air missed about two months of training, but returned this March to run second, again behind Spring Venture, in the OBS Championship (Filly Division) Stakes. She was in a good position to win her next race, the Grade I Central Bank Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, but faded down the stretch to finish ninth.

“I think she remembered that (Breeders’ Cup) race and she kind of gave it up down the stretch,” Oxley said. “I think it’s mental. She’s back here now, I think Mark will put that in the past and I think we’ll be back with her.”

Spring in the Air will be training up to the Woodbine Oaks and Casse is hopeful that a return to her home track might be what she needs to find the top of her game again.

“She just hasn’t come back to what she was before she bled,” he said. “I’m hoping maybe the cool air here and back to the track she loves, we’ll see a new filly.”

For Oxley, winning the Woodbine Oaks with Spring in the Air would be another special moment and a bit of deja vu. The owner’s first ever Canadian bred star was Gal in a Ruckus who won the Kentucky Oaks and Woodbine Oaks in 1995.