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Golden Siren A Beautiful Tune In Second Start For Mark Casse

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Saratoga Maidens, Presented By Keeneland

Golden Siren (Bolt d’Oro), one of three in the field with prior race experience, ran a useful second in an eventful debut behind Royal Palm Juvenile Stakes runner up Pros and Cons (Justify) going one mile on the local grass course July 10. Getting a bit of a stretch out to 1 1/16 miles Friday, the 5-2 favorite was happy to show the way unpressured under Jose Ortiz who took over the mount from Flavien Prat.

Allowed to lead comfortably through fractions of :23.26 and :47.57, Golden Siren hugged the rail up the backstretch and into the far turn, still with only mild challenges and no one running on yet from the back. Off the far turn and let loose to a 5 1/2-length gap, the favorite drew off nicely and was wrapped up on close to home with the win more then secured, checking in four lengths to the good of first-time starter Doves and Hawks (Twirling Candy).

“Everything went wrong for everybody (in Golden Siren’s debut),” winning trainer Mark Casse said on Saratoga Live. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it–horses flipping in the gate, horses bolting. You could see her mature really from her first race. She’s grown up. She’s a big, strong girl now. I thought today was pretty impressive.”

Stoneway Farm purchased Sea Song as a yearling for $110,000 in 2019 from Fasig-Tipton with this filly being the mare’s first winner from two to race. Her yearling, a colt by Forte, impressed at last week’s Saratoga Sale, bringing $600,000 from St. Elias Stables & Partners just nine months after bringing $300,000 as a Keeneland November weanling. Golden Siren also has a weanling half-sister by Oscar Performance, with Sea Song bred back to Bolt d’Oro for a full-sibling to Golden Siren next year.

6th-Saratoga, $115,000, Msw, 8-21, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:43.61, fm, 4 lengths.
GOLDEN SIREN (f, 2, Bolt d’Oro–Sea Song, by The Factor) Sales History: $135,000 Ylg ’25 FTKJUL. Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0, $86,250. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
O-Brad Smith; B-Stoneriggs Farm (KY); T-Mark E. Casse.

The post Golden Siren A Beautiful Tune In Second Start For Mark Casse appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Saratoga Notebook, presented by NYRA Bets: Injury Keeps Irad Ortiz Out of Alabama, Jose Ortiz will Ride Counting Stars

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Counting Stars (Honor A.P.) needed a new partner. Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse did not have to look too far to get one.

With regular rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. still ailing with a swollen left foot, Casse reached out to his brother, Jose, to step in and ride the big filly in Saturday’s $600,000 GI Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.

West Point Thoroughbreds’s Counting Stars is the overwhelming 1-2 morning-line favorite for the meet’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies.

“I’m not concerned at all,” Casse said by phone Friday afternoon. “I just feel bad for Irad.”

Steve Rushing, the agent for Irad and Jose, said via text that Irad “is not riding until further notice. Has an appointment with the doctor (Saturday).”

Irad Ortiz was set to breeze a horse Friday morning but did not feel right and that was scrapped. So too was the plan to return to riding on Saturday. He was scheduled to ride three races on the Alabama card.

In her last two starts, Counting Stars won the GI Coaching Club American Oaks on July 25 by 4 1/4 lengths and the GI Acorn Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths with Irad Ortiz in the irons. Finishing second in both races was ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ Always a Runner (Gun Runner), who was ridden by Jose Ortiz.

“Jose knows (Counting Stars) pretty good,” Casse said with a laugh. “He has seen her rear end the last two times.”

Jose Ortiz, the leading rider at the meet, rode Counting Stars once, in her second career start, the Myrtlewood Stakes at Keeneland last October. They finished fifth and Casse has forgotten that race. Counting Stars has won five of her eight starts since then.

A full winner’s circle for the CCA Oaks | Sarah Andrew

When Jose Ortiz meets Counting Stars in the paddock on Saturday, Casse knows he will be prepared.

“Jose will know what every horse is going to do; he’s a complete professional,” Casse said. “He studies the races pretty hard.”

Casse said that when Irad Ortiz returns to riding, he will get the mount on Counting Stars back. He also said that Jose Ortiz will be back aboard Nitrogen (Medaglia d’Oro), who was second in the GI Whitney Stakes behind Sovereignty (Into Mischief) on Aug. 8.

Jose Ortiz rode Magnitude (Not This Time) in the Whitney and they finished sixth as the favorite. Nitrogen, the 4-year-old filly, is expected to make her next start in the GII Fasig-Tipton Locust Grove Stakes at Churchill Downs Sept. 12.

Jose Ortiz had ridden Nitrogen in her last 14 starts before taking off to ride Magnitude. Hall of Famer John Velazquez rode Nitrogen in the Whitney.

“We understood completely why Jose rode Magnitude,” Casse said. “Nitrogen is his.”

Casse heads into the Alabama, a race he won last year with Nitrogen–the Eclipse Award winner for 3-year-old filly–full of confidence.

“It’s her race to lose,” Casse said. “If she brings her ‘A’ game, she is going to be extremely tough to beat. Right now, she is as good, if not better, as she has ever been. I am pretty confident. Not being cocky or anything, but I experct to win. You ask me the question, yeah, I expect to win.”

The Puma Tunes Up for Travers

This weekend promises to have a flurry of horses having final works for next Saturday’s $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes. The Puma (Essential Quality) got a head start on them as he worked six furlongs in 1:14.76 (1/1) Friday morning on the main track.

With Hall of Famer Javier Castellano–who has won the Travers a record seven times–aboard, The Puma entered the track at 8:45 a.m. for his third Spa work since arriving here following a fourth-place finish in the GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 18.

The Puma works Friday with Javier Castellano up | Sarah Andrew

“I like the way he did it today,” Castellano said outside trainer Gustavo Delgado’s barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. “That was what I was looking for. Our goal was maintenance and a good gallop out.”

The Puma, owned by OGMA Investments, LLC, JR Ranch, High Step Racing, LLC, TCC Stables, LLC and YNG Stables LLC, has won one of five career starts with two seconds and a third.

His lone win came in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby on March 7 and then he just missed in the GI Florida Derby three weeks later, losing by a nose to Commandment (Into Mischief). He missed the GI Kentucky Derby because of leg swelling and returned in the Haskell.

Now, he gets his chance to run against the big boys in the division, led by GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo (Curlin), a ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’, and Renegade (Into Mischief), who won the GII Jim Dandy.

The Puma will also see a couple of familiar faces in Baby Vino (Vino Rosso), a 28-1 longshot who beat GI Preakness Stakes winner Napoleon Solo (Liam’s Map) by a half-length in the Haskell.

Both of those horses are pointed to the Travers.

“They are all good horses in this race,” Delgado said. “But everything is good with our horse.”

“We could be a longshot,” Castellano said.

Castellano is no stranger to longshot winners in the Midsummer Derby. Of his seven winners in the Travers, four of them had odds of 7-1 or higher with the topper being Keen Ice (Curlin), who was 16-1 when he upset Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) in 2015.

Sovereignty Gets Back to Work

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott spotted his assistant, Neil Poznansky, in the shedrow of his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track Friday morning.

Poznansky had just finished working GI Whitney Stakes winner Sovereignty (Into Mischief) four furlongs in :49.85 (23/33) on the Oklahoma, his first work since winning the Whitney by 4 3/4 lengths on Aug. 8.

“A Sunday stroll,” Poznansky yelled to his boss and Mott smiled.

Sovereignty, a Godolphin homebred, worked with regular workmate Thunder Roll (Hard Spun), a 4-year-old gelding, who was ridden by jockey Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty’s afternoon partner.

Under Neil Poznansky, Sovereignty works Friday | Sarah Andrew

“I thought it went very smoothly,” Mott said. “Just a nice, useful kind of work, that is all. I already know he can run.”

Sovereignty, the 2025 Horse of the Year, is now being pointed to the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 18, opening day of the new Belmont Park. There, he could meet Japan’s Forever Young (Real Steel {Jpn}), winner of 11 of 15 career starts, including last year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Mott said Sovereignty will likely ship downstate the Monday before the race and train for three days at Belmont before running in the 1 1/4-Jockey Club Gold Cup.

“That is a good distance for him; he is 3-for-3 at that trip,” Mott said.

Sovereignty’s win in the Whitney snapped a two-race losing streak that he started the year with. It also gave every indication that he is indeed as good as he was last year when he stacked up wins in the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Belmont Stakes and GI Travers Stakes.

“It could be very boring if you don’t have one like that,” Mott said. ‘It’s challenging, believe me, it’s not without challenges. We expect a lot out of ourselves and a lot out of him. And other people expect a lot of you, too.”

Mott also said that C R K Stable and Grandview Equine’s Baeza (McKinzie), who was fourth in the Whitney, could be on his way out west to run in the $300,000 GI Goodwood Stakes over nine furlongs at Santa Anita on Sept. 26.

The post Saratoga Notebook, presented by NYRA Bets: Injury Keeps Irad Ortiz Out of Alabama, Jose Ortiz will Ride Counting Stars appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Golden Siren A Beautiful Tune In Second Start For Mark Casse

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Saratoga Maidens, Presented By Keeneland

Golden Siren (Bolt d’Oro), one of three in the field with prior race experience, ran a useful second in an eventful debut behind Royal Palm Juvenile Stakes runner up Pros and Cons (Justify) going one mile on the local grass course July 10. Getting a bit of a stretch out to 1 1/16 miles Friday, the 5-2 favorite was happy to show the way unpressured under Jose Ortiz who took over the mount from Flavien Prat.

Allowed to lead comfortably through fractions of :23.26 and :47.57, Golden Siren hugged the rail up the backstretch and into the far turn, still with only mild challenges and no one running on yet from the back. Off the far turn and let loose to a 5 1/2-length gap, the favorite drew off nicely and was wrapped up on close to home with the win more then secured, checking in four lengths to the good of first-time starter Doves and Hawks (Twirling Candy).

“Everything went wrong for everybody (in Golden Siren’s debut),” winning trainer Mark Casse said on Saratoga Live. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it–horses flipping in the gate, horses bolting. You could see her mature really from her first race. She’s grown up. She’s a big, strong girl now. I thought today was pretty impressive.”

Stoneway Farm purchased Sea Song as a yearling for $110,000 in 2019 from Fasig-Tipton with this filly being the mare’s first winner from two to race. Her yearling, a colt by Forte, impressed at last week’s Saratoga Sale, bringing $600,000 from St. Elias Stables & Partners just nine months after bringing $300,000 as a Keeneland November weanling. Golden Siren also has a weanling half-sister by Oscar Performance, with Sea Song bred back to Bolt d’Oro for a full-sibling to Golden Siren next year.

6th-Saratoga, $115,000, Msw, 8-21, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:43.61, fm, 4 lengths.
GOLDEN SIREN (f, 2, Bolt d’Oro–Sea Song, by The Factor) Sales History: $135,000 Ylg ’25 FTKJUL. Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0, $86,250. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
O-Brad Smith; B-Stoneriggs Farm (KY); T-Mark E. Casse.

The post Golden Siren A Beautiful Tune In Second Start For Mark Casse appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Saratoga Notebook, presented by NYRA Bets: Injury Keeps Irad Ortiz Out of Alabama, Jose Ortiz will Ride Counting Stars

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Counting Stars (Honor A.P.) needed a new partner. Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse did not have to look too far to get one.

With regular rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. still ailing with a swollen left foot, Casse reached out to his brother, Jose, to step in and ride the big filly in Saturday’s $600,000 GI Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.

West Point Thoroughbreds’s Counting Stars is the overwhelming 1-2 morning-line favorite for the meet’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies.

“I’m not concerned at all,” Casse said by phone Friday afternoon. “I just feel bad for Irad.”

Steve Rushing, the agent for Irad and Jose, said via text that Irad “is not riding until further notice. Has an appointment with the doctor (Saturday).”

Irad Ortiz was set to breeze a horse Friday morning but did not feel right and that was scrapped. So too was the plan to return to riding on Saturday. He was scheduled to ride three races on the Alabama card.

In her last two starts, Counting Stars won the GI Coaching Club American Oaks on July 25 by 4 1/4 lengths and the GI Acorn Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths with Irad Ortiz in the irons. Finishing second in both races was ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ Always a Runner (Gun Runner), who was ridden by Jose Ortiz.

“Jose knows (Counting Stars) pretty good,” Casse said with a laugh. “He has seen her rear end the last two times.”

Jose Ortiz, the leading rider at the meet, rode Counting Stars once, in her second career start, the Myrtlewood Stakes at Keeneland last October. They finished fifth and Casse has forgotten that race. Counting Stars has won five of her eight starts since then.

A full winner’s circle for the CCA Oaks | Sarah Andrew

When Jose Ortiz meets Counting Stars in the paddock on Saturday, Casse knows he will be prepared.

“Jose will know what every horse is going to do; he’s a complete professional,” Casse said. “He studies the races pretty hard.”

Casse said that when Irad Ortiz returns to riding, he will get the mount on Counting Stars back. He also said that Jose Ortiz will be back aboard Nitrogen (Medaglia d’Oro), who was second in the GI Whitney Stakes behind Sovereignty (Into Mischief) on Aug. 8.

Jose Ortiz rode Magnitude (Not This Time) in the Whitney and they finished sixth as the favorite. Nitrogen, the 4-year-old filly, is expected to make her next start in the GII Fasig-Tipton Locust Grove Stakes at Churchill Downs Sept. 12.

Jose Ortiz had ridden Nitrogen in her last 14 starts before taking off to ride Magnitude. Hall of Famer John Velazquez rode Nitrogen in the Whitney.

“We understood completely why Jose rode Magnitude,” Casse said. “Nitrogen is his.”

Casse heads into the Alabama, a race he won last year with Nitrogen–the Eclipse Award winner for 3-year-old filly–full of confidence.

“It’s her race to lose,” Casse said. “If she brings her ‘A’ game, she is going to be extremely tough to beat. Right now, she is as good, if not better, as she has ever been. I am pretty confident. Not being cocky or anything, but I experct to win. You ask me the question, yeah, I expect to win.”

The Puma Tunes Up for Travers

This weekend promises to have a flurry of horses having final works for next Saturday’s $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes. The Puma (Essential Quality) got a head start on them as he worked six furlongs in 1:14.76 (1/1) Friday morning on the main track.

With Hall of Famer Javier Castellano–who has won the Travers a record seven times–aboard, The Puma entered the track at 8:45 a.m. for his third Spa work since arriving here following a fourth-place finish in the GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 18.

The Puma works Friday with Javier Castellano up | Sarah Andrew

“I like the way he did it today,” Castellano said outside trainer Gustavo Delgado’s barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. “That was what I was looking for. Our goal was maintenance and a good gallop out.”

The Puma, owned by OGMA Investments, LLC, JR Ranch, High Step Racing, LLC, TCC Stables, LLC and YNG Stables LLC, has won one of five career starts with two seconds and a third.

His lone win came in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby on March 7 and then he just missed in the GI Florida Derby three weeks later, losing by a nose to Commandment (Into Mischief). He missed the GI Kentucky Derby because of leg swelling and returned in the Haskell.

Now, he gets his chance to run against the big boys in the division, led by GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo (Curlin), a ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’, and Renegade (Into Mischief), who won the GII Jim Dandy.

The Puma will also see a couple of familiar faces in Baby Vino (Vino Rosso), a 28-1 longshot who beat GI Preakness Stakes winner Napoleon Solo (Liam’s Map) by a half-length in the Haskell.

Both of those horses are pointed to the Travers.

“They are all good horses in this race,” Delgado said. “But everything is good with our horse.”

“We could be a longshot,” Castellano said.

Castellano is no stranger to longshot winners in the Midsummer Derby. Of his seven winners in the Travers, four of them had odds of 7-1 or higher with the topper being Keen Ice (Curlin), who was 16-1 when he upset Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) in 2015.

Sovereignty Gets Back to Work

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott spotted his assistant, Neil Poznansky, in the shedrow of his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track Friday morning.

Poznansky had just finished working GI Whitney Stakes winner Sovereignty (Into Mischief) four furlongs in :49.85 (23/33) on the Oklahoma, his first work since winning the Whitney by 4 3/4 lengths on Aug. 8.

“A Sunday stroll,” Poznansky yelled to his boss and Mott smiled.

Sovereignty, a Godolphin homebred, worked with regular workmate Thunder Roll (Hard Spun), a 4-year-old gelding, who was ridden by jockey Junior Alvarado, Sovereignty’s afternoon partner.

Under Neil Poznansky, Sovereignty works Friday | Sarah Andrew

“I thought it went very smoothly,” Mott said. “Just a nice, useful kind of work, that is all. I already know he can run.”

Sovereignty, the 2025 Horse of the Year, is now being pointed to the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 18, opening day of the new Belmont Park. There, he could meet Japan’s Forever Young (Real Steel {Jpn}), winner of 11 of 15 career starts, including last year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Mott said Sovereignty will likely ship downstate the Monday before the race and train for three days at Belmont before running in the 1 1/4-Jockey Club Gold Cup.

“That is a good distance for him; he is 3-for-3 at that trip,” Mott said.

Sovereignty’s win in the Whitney snapped a two-race losing streak that he started the year with. It also gave every indication that he is indeed as good as he was last year when he stacked up wins in the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Belmont Stakes and GI Travers Stakes.

“It could be very boring if you don’t have one like that,” Mott said. ‘It’s challenging, believe me, it’s not without challenges. We expect a lot out of ourselves and a lot out of him. And other people expect a lot of you, too.”

Mott also said that C R K Stable and Grandview Equine’s Baeza (McKinzie), who was fourth in the Whitney, could be on his way out west to run in the $300,000 GI Goodwood Stakes over nine furlongs at Santa Anita on Sept. 26.

The post Saratoga Notebook, presented by NYRA Bets: Injury Keeps Irad Ortiz Out of Alabama, Jose Ortiz will Ride Counting Stars appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.