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20-698: Canadian Triple Crown wins King’s Plate (2023) International Stakes wins : Queen Anne Stakes (2016) U.S. Triple Crown series: Preakness Stakes (2019) Mark E. Casse (born February 14, 1961) is a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer whose most notable horses include 2015 American champion turf mare Tepin and Canadian Horses of the Year Sealy Hill (2007), Uncaptured (2012), Lexie Lou (2014), Catch A Glimpse (2015) and Wonder Gadot . He has won thirteen Sovereign Awards for outstanding trainer in Canada and has been

40-619: A long time to be able to watch races because they (horses) are part of your family." That year, Casse was the #4 ranked trainer in North America by earnings. In 2016, Casse won several major stakes races with Tepin, including the prestigious Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in England. Other major graded stakes winners included World Approval, Lexie Lou, Kaigun, Catch A Glimpse, Noble Bird and Pretty City Dancer. On May 14, he won his 2,000th race at Gulfstream Park, even though he himself

60-661: A personal best, including the Woodbine Oaks , a prestigious race for Canadian-bred three-year-old fillies. In 2007, Casse won his second Woodbine training title and second straight Sovereign Award. He trained his first Canadian Horse of the Year , Sealy Hill , who won the Canadian Triple Tiara and several other stakes races. In 2008, Sealy Hill would finish second in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf and

80-478: A record nine Sovereign Awards as Canada's top trainer. In 1999, Casse trained his first Sovereign Award winning horse, Exciting Story, who was champion two year-old colt. Two years later, Exciting Story would also earn Casse his first Grade I stakes win, the Metropolitan Handicap , at odds of 56-1. The next year, Casse captured his first Woodbine training title with 69 wins. Among his stakes winners

100-539: Is Moonshadow Farm in Florida. Casse started to run his father's training operation in 1976 at the age of 15 and received his training license in Massachusetts when he was 17. He received a Kentucky trainer's license at age 18 and won his first race at Keeneland with Joe’s Coming on April 14, 1979. His first stakes winner was Amalie, who won the 1979 Indian Maid at Sportsman’s Park . He won the trainer's title at

120-806: Is contested on three different track surfaces . The first leg, the King's Plate in August, is contested at 1¼ miles on Tapeta at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario , whereas the Prince of Wales Stakes in September is a 1 ³ / 16 mile event run on dirt at Fort Erie Race Track in Fort Erie, Ontario . The final leg is the 1½ mile Breeders' Stakes in October, which is run on turf over one full lap of

140-725: The Breeders' Stakes . Canadian Horse of the Year The Canadian Horse of the Year is a thoroughbred horse racing honour given annually since 1951 by the Jockey Club of Canada . It is the most prestigious honour in Canadian thoroughbred horse racing. Part of the Sovereign Awards program since 1975, it is similar to the Eclipse Award for American Horse of the Year honours given in

160-770: The Churchill Downs Spring meet of 1988, and also won four training titles at Turfway Park . He was Calumet Farm 's private trainer for two years. In the 1990s, Casse became the private trainer of Harry Mangurian and ran Mockingbird Farm, which at the time had 900 horses in the Ocala area. Manguarian dispersed most of his stock in 1999 and 2000, and the farm was bought by Eugene Melnyk , who renamed it Winding Oaks and become one of Casse's majort clients. Casse officially moved his center of operations to Woodbine Racetrack in 1998 though he had already been racing there for several years. Since moving to Canada, Casse has won

180-476: The Queen's Plate , Canada's premier race, with filly Lexie Lou . She was later named Canadian Horse of the Year while Casse won his seventh Sovereign Award. Casse would finish the year ranked #6 in North America by earnings. In 2015, Casse scored his first two Breeders' Cup wins, with Catch a Glimpse in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf , and with Tepin in the Breeders' Cup Mile . Tepin would be awarded

200-638: The United States . The original eligibility rules stipulated that the winner be a Canadian-bred horse that did its "best running" in Canada. In 1964, the rule was altered for Northern Dancer , who was a Canadian-bred but whose most notable wins came in the United States when he won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes . Eventually the requirement that the horse be a Canadian-bred was also dropped. The current rules simply require that

220-650: The 2015 Eclipse Award for champion turf mare , while Catch A Glimpse was named the Canadian Horse of the Year. Unfortunately, a promising colt, Danzig Moon, who had finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby and was the favourite for the Queen's Plate, suffered a catastrophic breakdown during the Plate Trial. "If you knew why it happened, you could try to do it better or do it differently. So now we’ve got this fear and worry that it could happen again. It’s going to take

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240-670: The Canadian Triple Crown: Champions: Notes In 2011, Luis Contreras became the first jockey to sweep the Triple Crown races with different horses. He won the then Queen's Plate on Inglorious and the next two races on Pender Harbour. In 2020, trainer Josie Carroll won all three legs of the Canadian Triple Crown with Mighty Heart winning the then Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes and Belichick winning

260-646: The E. P. Taylor Turf Course at Woodbine. The Canadian Triple Crown shares another characteristic with its American counterpart – all of the races in both series are open to geldings . This differs from the situation in Europe, where many important flat races, notably the British and all but one of the French classics, bar geldings. Since 2014, all of the races in the Canadian Triple Crown have been televised by TSN . Twelve horses are officially recognized as winning

280-724: The leading trainer at Woodbine Racetrack 14 times. In 2019, he won his first American Classic with War of Will in the Preakness Stakes . Casse was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on February 14, 1961, to Norman Casse. He grew up in Ocala, Florida where his father ran Cardinal Hill Farm and was one of the founders of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company. His brothers are John and Justin Casse , who are also involved in

300-470: The racing industry. At age eight, Casse accompanied his father to the spring meet of the original Woodbine Racetrack. In 1973, father and son traveled to Churchill Downs and saw Secretariat win the 1973 Kentucky Derby . Casse's third wife, Tina, is the Direct of Operations for Casse Racing, a company they founded in 2002. Although they spend much of the year at Woodbine Racetrack in Canada, their home base

320-652: The top three finishers. He also earned his first Grade I win since 2001 when Pool Play won the Stephen Foster Stakes at odds of 36-1. In 2012, Casse ranked 7th in North America by trainer earnings. Uncaptured became his second Canadian Horse of the Year when, at the age of two, he won the Clarendon, Vandal, and Swynford stakes at Woodbine and the Iroquois and Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs. On July 6, 2014, Casse scored his first victory in

340-597: The win in Race 3. Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing The Canadian Triple Crown (branded as the OLG Canadian Triple Crown for sponsorship reasons) is a series of three Thoroughbred horse races run annually in Canada which is open to three-year-old horses foaled in Canada. Established in 1959, the series is unique in that it shares the same distances as its American counterpart but

360-465: Was Added Edge, who was named Canada’s champion two-year-old. Casse had developed a reputation for training good two-year-olds and selling them once they won, which kept him from winning most major races. This started to change around 2005 as Casse's client list started to grow. Casse earned his first Sovereign Award for outstanding trainer in 2005, and had his first Kentucky Derby starter, Seaside Retreat. The next year, his horses won eleven stakes races,

380-544: Was eventually inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame . Casse earned his 1,000th win on August 9, 2008 at Woodbine with Laragh. In 2011, Casse won his fifth straight training title at Woodbine Toronto with a record 119 victories, which was nearly double the number of wins compiled by the runner-up. Among them were 13 stakes victories including the Grey Stakes , in which Casse saddled

400-501: Was located at Woodbine at the time. "It's a great testimony to our team, which I'm very proud of," said Casse. At the 2016 Breeders' Cup , Classic Empire established himself as a leading contender for the 2017 Kentucky Derby by winning the Juvenile . In 2016, Casse was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame . On November 19, 2020 at Gulfstream Park West, he registered his 3,000th win with his horse Souper Watson taking

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