{"id":326477,"date":"2025-08-07T23:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T23:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326477\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T23:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T23:59:12","slug":"he-just-wins-mark-casse-praises-dream-on-ahead-of-secretariat-stakes-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326477\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He Just Wins\u2019: Mark Casse Praises Dream On Ahead Of Secretariat Stakes Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018He Just Wins\u2019: Mark Casse Praises Dream On Ahead Of Secretariat Stakes Bid<\/a> originally appeared on Paulick Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

D.J. Stable\u2019s graded stakes winner Dream On will seek his third added-money title in a row on Saturday in the Grade 2 $500,000 Secretariat at Colonial Downs. Trained by dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse, Dream On will face a field of eight 3-year-old males as the 5-2 morning line favorite for the one-mile turf race.<\/p>\n

One of three graded stakes on the Festival of Racing Day card, the Secretariat is slated as race 9, followed by the G2 $500,000 Beverly D., and the G1 Arlington Million.<\/p>\n

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After a strong juvenile campaign, Dream On earned a spot in the Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile Turf, where he led throughout but was swallowed up by closers in the final stages and finished fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the fall, I thought he was our best shot to win in the Breeders\u2019 Cup,\u201d Casse said. \u201cAnd he ran good. After that race, we gave him a little time. When he came back, he won an allowance race (at Gulfstream Park) and then he ran a real clunker at Tampa. I don’t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dream On\u2019s 3-year-old campaign has been sensational, winning three of his four starts. After his fifth-place finish to Zulu Kingdom in the Columbia Stakes at Tampa Bay in March, the Not This Time colt rebounded in the Woodhaven Stakes at Aqueduct, gamely holding off Septarian\u2019s late kick at the wire. Having vied for the lead or stalked in all his previous races, Dream On showed a new dimension in the Penn Mile (G3) at Penn National in June. Facing his front-running stablemate Mi Bago, Dream On was taken back to last, allowed to build his run, split foes at the top of the stretch, and offered a powerful late surge to win by a length over Cario Caper, who is also entered in the Secretariat.<\/p>\n

Both stakes scores were over the turf and at the same distance as the Secretariat, and all three wins came with Javier Castellano in the irons.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow he’s able to react to whatever the situation is,\u201d Casse said. \u201dIt\u2019s made him a better horse.<\/p>\n

“I give Javier a lot of credit there. Javier knows him really well now because he\u2019s rode him a few times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casse shipped Dream On to New Kent after his graded stakes score, and since then he has put in three local drills, all bullets.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the Penn Mile was over, (Colonial) was where we wanted to go with him,\u201d Casse said. \u201cHe’s one of those interesting horses who doesn’t do it fancy. He just wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past three years, Casse has had a strong presence on the Colonial Downs backside, winning at a 20% clip from 121 starts. In 2023, Casse and Castellano teamed up to win the Beverly D. with Fev Rover on Festival of Racing Day. Earlier this meet, Casse\u2019s 4,000th career win came at Colonial. Drawing to the outside in the field of eight, Dream On will be reunited with Castellano.<\/p>\n

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In the $150,000 Van Clief Stakes on Saturday\u2019s strong undercard, Casse will send out Gary Barber\u2019s Step Forward to face a field of 13 older males going 5\u00bd furlongs on the turf.<\/p>\n

Though the 6-year-old is without a stakes win, in 2024 he faced graded stakes company four times, finishing third in both the Highlander (G2) at Woodbine and the Troy (G3) at Saratoga.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s really good right now,\u201d Casse said. \u201cSo I thought we’d take a shot (in the Van Clief).\u201d<\/p>\n

Last out in an allowance turf sprint at Saratoga, Step Forward ran second, getting nosed out of the winner\u2019s circle by Twisted Filigree.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe ran very well at Saratoga last time,\u201d Casse said. \u201cAlthough he’s kind of let me down here and there, I’ve always thought of him as a really nice horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Step Forward was tabbed at 6-1 in the morning line, drew post 6, and will be piloted by Mychel Sanchez.<\/p>\n

Scheduled as race 8, the Van Clief kicks off an All Stakes Pick 4 that concludes with the Arlington Million.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s 12-race program also includes the $100,000 Petramalo Mile, a one-mile dirt race for 3-year-olds and its sister race, the $100,000 Tyson Gilpin at seven furlongs; and the $150,000 Andy Guest for 3-year-old & up fillies and mares at 5 1\/2 furlongs on the turf. First post is noon ET.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the Colonial Downs Festival of Racing can be purchased at www.colonialdowns.com.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Aug 7, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018He Just Wins\u2019: Mark Casse Praises Dream On Ahead Of Secretariat Stakes Bid originally appeared on Paulick Report.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[94806,13688,117639,93874,117641,1071,117638,79,117640,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-326477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-colonial-downs","9":"tag-dream","10":"tag-javier-castellano","11":"tag-mark-casse","12":"tag-morning-line","13":"tag-racing","14":"tag-secretariat","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-step-forward","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114990204108479073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}