By Jessica Martini
John Oxley's Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile) will skip the Mar. 4 GII Fountain of Youth S. as he continues to recover from a foot abscess, trainer Mark Casse said Sunday, confirming a story first reported in Daily Racing Form.
“He trained this morning and he trained well, but his foot is still not 100%,” Casse explained. “If we were going to run him, we'd want to breeze him [Monday], and we're just not ready to breeze him. So I called Mr. Oxley up and had a nice conversation with him and we're just going to wait and see. Our hopes are that we can gallop him another week and possibly breeze next weekend.”
Classic Empire captured last year's GI Breeders' Futurity and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile before being named Eclipse champion juvenile colt. Heavily favored in his sophomore debut, the bay colt came home a distant third in the Feb. 4 GII Holy Bull S. and the abscess was discovered two days later.
“It's been hard on him,” Casse said. “Not only did he get all worked up in the race, then two days later he could barely walk. I just want him to look better and feel better. It looks like he's lost some weight and his foot is still draining just a touch and this race wasn't a have-to-be, so why push it.”
As for a potential next start, Casse said, “We're just going to wait and see. If worse came to worse, he won the Breeders' Futurity off of a three-month layoff and then won the Breeders' Cup. So if necessary, we feel like we could go with only one more [GI Kentucky Derby] prep. But it's way too far out to say that for sure.”
Casse said he wasn't concerned about the change in schedule.
“I'd be worried if this was April,” he said. “If you were going to have it, this was the time to have it. He has trained the last four mornings, so it's not like he isn't training.”
The Casse barn unveiled another potential sophomore star Saturday at Fair Grounds in 'TDN Rising Star' Souper Tapit (Tapit). After breaking last, the colt, out of Grade I winner Zo Impressive (Hard Spun) circled the field five wide turning for home and battled to a neck victory.
“We're excited about Souper Tapit,” Casse said. “We have been for some time. I thought his race was just special. Not too many horses can spot the field, eat all the dirt, circle the field. The move he made around the turn, running by horses like they were standing still, five and six wide, is not an easy task. I thought then he lost focus a little down the lane and then galloping out, he took off again. He is an extremely talented horse, we just have to get all his energy in one direction.”
As for what is next for the Live Oak Plantation homebred, Casse added, “We're probably going to take baby steps with him. I have to talk to [owner] Mrs. [Charlotte] Weber a little bit more about it–we want to let everything calm down–but he'll probably run in an allowance race somewhere. I would think that he should improve off of yesterday's performance and if he can do that, then we can think about bigger and better things.”
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