SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mark Casse had just finished fourth with the first-time starter Charlottesuniverse in the sixth race at Saratoga on Thursday, but he still had reason to celebrate.
Literally moments before, It’s Witchcraft got her nose in front at the wire in the 11th race at Colonial Downs, giving Casse his 4,000th training career victory in North America. While the connections of Sacred Goddess were getting their picture taken for winning at Saratoga, Casse stood just outside the winner’s circle, holding a sign acknowledging his 4000th win – not his 20,410th loser – and doing interviews.
“That’s my life,” said Casse, who watched the Colonial race on a television in the Saratoga clubhouse. “Four thousand of them. You get one place, you run to the other. We were making sure we had won – we thought we had won – and I was like, ‘I can’t miss this next race.’"
It’s Witchcraft is owned by DJ Stables, a longtime client of Casse’s. Casse said that was the 2,600th victory for that ownership group.
“We did it together, and I think that’s pretty appropriate. They’ve been big supporters of ours,” Casse said. “You know what was nice about it, everybody wanted to be 4,000.”
Casse won his 4,001st race when Film Academy won Thursday's finale at Saratoga. Film Academy, a 4-year-old gelding, was owned by Gary Barber.
In a quieter moment on Wednesday morning, Casse, 64, reflected on what the accomplishment meant.
"It’s hard to believe, really,” Casse said. “If you think about it, that’s a lot, and I’m not saying it in a bragging way, I’m just saying it’s a lot of damn wins.”
Ironically, the tally doesn’t include Casse’s most significant – or at least memorable – victory. That was Tepin’s triumph in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in England in June 2016.
“The one that would stand out most would be Tepin,” Casse said. “In all honesty, when we won it, I don’t know that I appreciated it as much as I appreciate it now after watching so many good horses go over there and get nothing.”
Tepin was the most accomplished horse Casse trained, twice crowned North America’s champion female turf horse in 2015 and 2016. Other U.S. champions trained by Casse were Classic Empire, Shamrock Rose, and World Approval. Casse trained Canadian Horse of the Year honorees Catch a Glimpse, Lexie Lou, Sealy Hill, Uncaptured, and Wonder Gadot. He’s won a Preakness, a Belmont Stakes, and five Breeders’ Cup races.
Casse grew up the son of a trainer and took out his trainer’s license at age 17 in Massachusetts. He saddled his first winner, Joe’s Coming, at Keeneland, in 1979. Casse started training in Kentucky before moving his operation to Woodbine. Spurred on by his son, Norm, who grew up in Louisville, Mark Casse returned to the U.S. in the mid-2000s.
“Norman was the one who got me back here,” Casse said. “I was quite content with just running at Woodbine. It works out nice. We’d run from the middle of March to the middle of December and I’d go home to Ocala and have three or four nice months off. Norman messed all that up. He started getting involved. He said, 'Let's start running in Kentucky,' so we did.”
Casse met owners such as John Oxley, Gary Barber, Len Green, Charlotte Weber, and Tracy Farmer, to name just a few, and his career took off.
“Mr. Oxley came along and started giving us better horses,” Casse said. “For a long time we were getting mostly third- and fourth-string horses. Mr. Oxley gave us the opportunity to go out and buy some really nice horses.”
Casse is one of four trainers – Roger Attfield, Lucien Laurin, and Horatio Luro being the others – inducted in both the Canadian and U.S. racing Halls of Fame.
Casse said there’s still more to accomplish, like winning the Kentucky Derby, a race in which he is winless with 11 starters in nine runnings of the race. In 2019, after War of Will was interfered with in the Kentucky Derby (he finished seventh), he rebounded to win the Preakness. Three weeks later, Casse won the Belmont Stakes with Sir Winston.
“All the people around me that gave me their support and cheer for me, I appreciate it,” Casse said. “When I’m dead and gone, I want to be known as a good horse trainer, but I want to be known as a great person, so that’s what I work on everyday.”
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