Easy Time to Complete Hall of Fame Day for Casse

By: Christine Oser

Trainer Mark Casse has a full day planned surrounding the Hall of Fame Aug. 6 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. In the morning he will be at Fasig-Tipton for the induction ceremony as part of the 2020 class, and in the afternoon he will saddle Easy Time  in the $200,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T) across the street at Saratoga Race Course.

“I can’t think of anything better than to get inducted in the morning and win it in the afternoon,” Casse said.

Breeze Easy’s Easy Time enters Friday’s one-mile race for 3-year-olds on the inner turf off a two-length victory in the July 11 Marine Stakes (G3) on the Tapeta at Woodbine in Canada, where Casse was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016. 

The Not This Time   colt was a debut winner on Woodbine’s Tapeta last October in his lone start at 2. He opened his sophomore season on the Gulfstream Park dirt, finishing eighth in the Jan. 2 Mucho Macho Man Stakes, then tried the Gulfstream turf in a Feb. 12 allowance optional claimer and finished second, missing only by a neck. He returned successfully in the Marine off a five-month layoff.

“Easy Time is a nice horse. He broke his maiden impressively. We tried him on the dirt at Gulfstream and he probably wasn’t ready to do that,” Casse said. “He came back and had a troubled trip over the grass at Gulfstream and came out of it with a minor setback, so we gave him some time at our training center in Ocala. He was impressive last time.

“I think he’s a pretty good horse. Judging by his only performance on the grass at Gulfstream, I don’t think grass is an issue.”

Woodslane Farm’s homebred Wolfie’s Dynaghost  will make his turf debut after winning an off-the-turf allowance optional claimer July 3 in the slop at Belmont Park. The Ghostzapper   colt was a debut winner on Aqueduct Racetrack‘s main track in November, then fifth in the May 8 Peter Pan Stakes (G3) at Belmont in his seasonal opener before rebounding last out.

Wolfie’s Dynaghost is a half brother to grade 1 turf winner Sadler’s Joy . Both are trained by Tom Albertrani. 

“He has a lot of turf pedigree to him and if he’s anything like his half brother, we’re optimistic that he’ll run well,” Albertrani said. “He’s run well on two wet tracks. The Peter Pan was a bit of a head-scratcher. It could have been a combination of maybe he wasn’t 100% tight that day or the dry track, too. Maybe he was looking for turf all along.

“We came back and tried him on the grass and it came off so we ran him anyway, and he was really impressive. I think we’re still in a phase with him and learning more about him, but I think this distance is perfect for him, and if the grass moves him up a step or two, even better.”

Trainer John Terranova entered two for owner Eric Fein—July 4 Manila Stakes winner Original  and Ranger Fox , a 5 1/2-length maiden winner July 10 at Belmont—but said it’s possible one could wait for the Aug. 29 Better Talk Now Stakes.

Also returning from the Manila is Klaravich Stables’ Public Sector , who was second beaten a head. The Kingman  colt trained by Chad Brown defeated Original in a June 4 allowance optional claimer on yielding turf at Belmont.

Multiple stakes winner and Manila fifth Annex , June 26 War Chant Stakes winner Next , and July 17 American Derby fourth In Effect  complete the field.

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