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MARK CASSE

MARK CASSE
Birthdate - February 14, 1983
Birthplace - Indianapolis, IN
Residence - Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada and Ocala, FL
Family - Wife Tina, seven children: Cheryl, Norman, Joel, Alex, Camille, Kyle and Colby
Website - casseracing.com

2016 RECORD

1,334 - 235, 202, 182 

$17,946,005

2016 NYRA RECORD

132 - 20, 17, 17 

$2,362,909

NATIONAL/ECLIPSE CHAMPIONS

Classic Empire: Top 2-Year-Old Male (2016)

Tepin: Top Turf Female (2015-16)

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

* Trained two Eclipse Award winners in 2016: Tepin (Top Turf Female) and Classic Empire (Top Turf Male)

* Inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2016

* Won eight Sovereign Awards as Canada’s top trainer (2006-08, 2011-15)

* Trained 16 Sovereign Award winners, including four Horses of the Year in Canada: Catch a Glimpse (2015), Lexie Lou (2014), Uncaptured (2012), Sealy Hill (2007)

* Sent champion Tepin to an eight-race win streak in 2015-16, including victories against males in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Mile and 2016 Grade 1 Woodbine Mile and becoming the first U.S.-based horse to win the Group 1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot in 2016

* Trained three-time Sovereign Award winner Catch a Glimpse to eight straight victories in 2015-2016, including the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Grade 1 Belmont Oaks

* Recorded a personal-best year in 2016 with 235 winners from 1,334 starters, including 26 graded stakes wins, and $17.95 million in earnings to rank #3 among trainers nationally

* Saddled his 2000th winner, Reimburse, on May 14, 2016 at Gulfstream

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

* Son Norman serves as his head assistant

* Assisted at Belmont Park by Randi Melton

* His late father, Norman, served as chairman of the board of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales before his 2006 retirement

* Brother Justin works as a bloodstock agent and brother John is in equine insurance

INTRODUCTION TO RACING

* Father bought and sold horses on a small Indiana farm before relocating the family to Ocala to found Cardinal Hill Stable

* Decided on a career in horse racing at age 12, after traveling with his father to see Secretariat win the 1973 Kentucky Derby

* Took out his trainer’s license at age 17 in Massachusetts

FIRST WINNER

* Joe’s Coming, April 14, 1979, Keeneland (first starter)

NEW YORK AND GRADE 1 STAKES

Added Edge: Nashua (2002)

Catch a Glimpse: Belmont Oaks Inv. (2016); Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (2015)

Classic Empire: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (2016); Breeders’ Futurity (2016)

Conquest Enforcer: Allied Forces (2016)

Dark Ending: Selene (2001)

Dynamic Sky: Red Smith H. (2014)

Exciting Story: Metropolitan H. (2001)

Holding Gold: Quick Call (2016)

My Conquestadory: Alcibiades (2013)

Noble Bird: Stephen Foster H. (2015)

Pool Play: Stephen Foster H. (2011)

Precise End: Bay Shore (2000)

Pretty City Dancer: Spinaway-DH (2016)

Pretty Sham: Barn Swallow (1986)

Raja’s Shark: Jamaica H. (1984)

Sky Flight: Artie Schiller (2016)

Spring in the Air: Alcibiades (2012)

Theogony: Rags to Riches (2016)

Tepin: Woodbine Mile (2016); Jenny Wiley (2016); Breeders’ Cup Mile (2015); Just a Game (2015); First Lady (2015)

Victory to Victory: Natalma (2016)

World Approval: United Nations (2016); Saranac (2015)


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