Gary Barber and Southern Equine Stables' Got Stormy (Get Stormy) tries to give her trainer, Mark Casse, his third victory in Saturday's GI Ricoh Woodbine Mile S., a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile st Santa Anita Nov. 2. His first two wins were registered with Tepin in 2016 followed by World Approval the following year. Both horses went on to secure year-end Eclipse Awards for Casse.
A winner in a Gulfstream optional claimer Mar. 7, the chestnut finished third in the Apr. 13 GI Jenny Wiley S. at Keeneland before a runner-up effort in the GII Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs May 4. Given a brief respite after that, she returned even better with a convincing four-length score in the Aug. 3 De La Rose S. at Saratoga before annexing the Aug. 10 GI Fourstardave S., breaking the track record in the process.
“I initially had planned going right from the De La Rose to the Woodbine Mile,” admitted Casse. “Gary was the one that pushed so hard for the Fourstardave. I gave him all the reasons why we shouldn't do it and he said, 'Okay, that's good, but unless you tell me you're not happy with her I want to run her back in a week.'
He continued, “I said, 'Okay, fair enough.' And as the week went on between the De La Rose and the Fourstardave, she just got bigger and stronger. She just started thriving. The day we entered, which would have been Wednesday, I said, 'I don't think I've ever seen her train so good as we did today.”
When asked to compare her latest star to Tepin, Casse added,
“I gave her a three-year-old campaign and took her home,” the trainer said of Got Stormy, who won four of nine starts last season, including Woodbine's GIII Ontario Colleen S. “Same thing I did with Tepin. When [Got Stormy) won that allowance race at Gulfstream [in March], it reminded me a lot of how Tepin had done when she came back after giving her a break. I sent the PPs to Gary Barber and said, 'It reminds me a lot of Tepin.' I wasn't comparing her yet to Tepin; I just was saying there were some similarities there. I think you can start talking about her about being on the exceptional side. She still has a lot to do and to prove to be in the same league as Tepin, but she does seem to be on her way there.”
A bonafide horse-for-the-course, Stronach Stables' Silent Poet (Silent Name {Jpn}) has accounted for five wins and a pair of seconds from seven starts over the local turf, including his latest a course-record setting score in the seven-furlong GII Play the King S. Aug. 24. The winner of half of his eight starts in 2018, including the Vice Regent S. over this course and trip last September, Silent Poet rounded out his campaign with with a pair of on-the-board stakes finishes over the main track, including the most recent of the two a runner-up finish in the Sir Barton S. In December. Gelded during his time away from the races, he returned a new horse with a front-running win going 6 1/2 furlongs against allowance foes July 21.
Asked if the plan had been to run in the Woodbine Mile immediately after the Play the King, trainer Nick Gonzalez said, “I was saying that, yes. I kind of had thoughts about it before the race, but I was trying to play it cool. After he did what he did, and the way he did what he did, in track record style, you had to be pretty excited. Even though we trainers don't like to get too far ahead of ourselves, you couldn't help but think what might happen in three weeks.”
Always one to reckon with, trainer Chad Brown is represented by Grade I winner Raging Bull (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who looks to get back in the winner's circle for trainer Peter Brant. Victorious in a trio of graded stakes in 2018, including the GI Hollywood Derby at Del Mar in December, bay returned with a pair of fourths in 2019–the GI Maker's Mark 46 Mile in April and the GI Turf Classic over nine furlongs at Churchill in May. Third in the 10-panel GI Manhattan S. at Belmont June 8, he closed to be second last time out behind Got Stormy in the Fourstardave. Joel Rosario, who was aboard for his Hollywood Derby win, gets back on board here.
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