Back in the summer, Got Stormy was trying to find a niche to her 2019 season. The 4-year-old filly had won an allowance at Gulfstream in March, finished third in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April and was second in the Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs in May.
Trainer Mark Casse dropped her into the restricted De La Rose Stakes, going a mile Aug. 3, and she romped by 4 lengths. Then the fun started. A week later, she ousted nine others in the Grade 1 Fourstardave against males. Now she’s one of the major players in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile. The Saratoga Special covered both wins this summer.
Got Stormy finds clear sailing in De La Rose. Written for the Aug. 4 Saratoga Special by Paul Halloran.
Even though it hasn’t been the best of meets for Tyler Gaffalione, he could not have been more confident sitting on Got Stormy in Saturday’s De La Rose Stakes.
“Honestly, I knew at any point around the track that I was going to win,” the jockey said. “I had plenty of horse. She’s a nice filly with a ton of talent.”
Got Stormy entered off a three-month freshening for trainer Mark Casse, after finishing third in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley April 13 at Keeneland and second in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs May 4.
“She’s turned out to be a good horse,” Casse said of the Gary Barber and Southern Equine Stable-owned 4-year-old, who now has six wins in 14 career starts and just less than $500,000 in earnings.
Divine Miss Grey burst to the lead from the far outside and led into the backstretch, followed by Desert Isle and a rank Rock My Love. Got Stormy was a clear fourth down the backstretch, with Gaffalione biding his time.
Desert Isle took the lead on the turn and opened a 4-length lead early in the stretch, but when Gaffalione asked, Got Stormy answered without feeling the whip and drew off to an easy 4-length win. Capla Temptress was up for second, with Stella di Camelot taking third for leading trainer Chad Brown, who was uncharacteristically blanked on a stakes Saturday at Saratoga.
“She trained so good,” said Casse, who breathed a sigh of relief in the winner’s circle after the race. “It’s been a rough week up here, everything has gone wrong. I had that horse in the Amsterdam (Strike Silver) that I thought would run well, and he almost fell. (He faltered in the stretch and was vanned off.) You always get a little nervous when things go wrong like that.”
There was no such worry Saturday, as Got Stormy, a son of Get Stormy and the Malabar Gold mare Super Phoebe, was the easiest of winners.
“She’s turned out to be a serious horse,” said Casse, who is considering sending her to the Woodbine Mile Sept. 14. “She’s run well once up there (a victory in the 2018 Ontario Colleen). We may take on the boys with her.”
Gaffalione, who had won only six times in 71 mounts heading into Saturday, picked up his second win of the day, after scoring with Leinster in the Troy Stakes. He also picked up a win Friday.
“It’s a tough meet and a very competitive colony,” the Preakness-winning jockey said. “I’m happy to be here and fortunate to win a few stakes. I’ve been through 0-for-60s. You’ve got to ride through it.”
Or weather the storm, which the other five horses in the De La Rose were clearly not equipped to do.
Got a Week? On heels of De La Rose, filly beats boys in Fourstardave. Written for the Aug. 11 Saratoga Special by Sean Clancy.
Gary Barber called Mark Casse Monday, two days after Got Stormy won the De La Rose and two days before entries closed for the Grade 1 Fourstardave.
“She left half her feed,” Casse said.
“Did you feed her twice as much?” Barber asked.
That was just one of many exchanges between owner and trainer during a tense seven days between Got Stormy’s facile win as the favorite in the restricted stakes and the audacious challenge of coming back in seven days to take on the boys in the $500,000 stakes.
The conversations might have been tense, but the result was intense, as Got Stormy set a course record while dominating eight rivals in the 1-mile turf stakes. Owned by Barber and Southern Equine Stable, the daughter of Got Stormy earned her seventh win and first Grade 1 stakes win, increasing her earnings to $760,078. Ricardo Santana Jr. guided the chestnut filly, deputizing for Tyler Gaffalione, committed to Casse’s other runner March To The Arch.
Got Stormy broke sharply from post 6, angled left before abstaining, sliding into fourth behind Gidu, Dr. Edgar and Made You Look. Gidu scampered to the lead, opening up an ambitious margin over Dr. Edgar and Made You Look. Got Stormy settled into a sweet spot in fourth along the rail.
Gidu ripped through a quarter-mile in :22.65 and a half-mile in :44.61, after those fractions, his trainer, Todd Pletcher, lowered his binoculars. The gray speedster was nothing but a hood ornament at that stage. After three quarters of a mile in 1:08.36, Gidu was reeling as Made You Look swung past him and opened up a 2-length lead. Santana wasn’t worried, stealing a look under his right arm as Got Stormy rolled past the eighth pole. Made You Look offered nothing and Got Stormy sprinted home, widening with every stride to win by 2 ½ lengths over the closing trio of Raging Bull, Uni and March To The Arch. Got Stormy stopped the clock in a course-record 1:32.
Casse tends to run his horses more often than most trainers in today’s era of reading the sheets and demanding the rests, but this move was out of his wheelhouse.
“Allen Jerkens said to me years ago, ‘Run them when they’re good. Rest them when they’re not,’ ” Casse said. “We don’t do that enough. Now, a week is a little unusual.”
Casse would not have run back in seven days without Barber’s cajoling (that might be too soft for it) and without Got Stormy showing she could handle it.
“He’s never been this strong, but he did not override me. He knew I didn’t want to do it but if I had one little doubt, all I had to do was tell him,” Casse said. “My only concern about running back is hurting her. That’s all. The only thing Mark Casse would be known for is hurting this filly. But, she was fine, I wasn’t worried about that.”
Barber had the Fourstardave in mind before the De La Rose. When Got Stormy won the mile stakes with ease. When the owner checked the speed numbers, he ramped up the pressure to run back in a week.
“Very seldom do we disagree. In this case I had to do a lot of arm twisting,” Barber said. “I was never going to back off. My bloodstock advisors were calling me, ‘You can’t do this.’ I said, ‘I’m doing it. OK. I’ll take full blame.’ That’s it. She’s been working like a monster, that was a workout last week, he was a statue on her. I can take being wrong, I’ve been there before, that’s why I’m going to enjoy this. You put so much into this game, these are the moments you wait for, it’s a joy.”
Bred by Mt. Joy Stable and the McLean family, Got Stormy sold for $23,000 at Keeneland September Sales in 2016. Purchased by Equine Invest, she returned at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale in 2017 in Niall Brennan’s consignment where she was purchased for $45,000 by Alan Quartucci. Trained by Lisa Lewis for Quartucci, the daughter of Get Stormy finished third in her debut at Gulfstream Park in December 2017 and fourth in her second start a month later. Purchase by Barber and Southern Equine, she broke her maiden in February and has gradually climbed the ladder since, winning three stakes last year. Put away after finishing fifth in the Winter Memories at Aqueduct, she returned to win an allowance race at Gulfstream in March. Casse liked what he saw.
“This is going to be the next Tepin,” Casse told Barber.
Those are big shoes. Tepin won 13 races, $4.4 million and two Eclipse Awards as champion turf mare. She won at Royal Ascot, Woobine, the Breeders’ Cup, everywhere.
“The way she did things, it just reminded me of Tepin,” Casse said. “Tepin didn’t start out great, Tepin became great. This filly started out OK and she’s just gotten better and better.”
Got Stormy finished third in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley in her next start and second in the Churchill Downs Distaff Turf in May. Freshened, she has scourged Saratoga, winning twice in seven days, her first Grade 1 and setting a course record. Yeah, she looks a bit like Tepin. And it might not have happened with Barber pressuring Casse to do the unorthodox.
Casse has trained horses for 41 years, learning the nuances of dealing with horses as well as dealing with owners. A winner of 2,746 races, Casse listens to his wife, Tina, when it comes to a trainer’s role.
“She always says, ‘It’s our job to give the owners the beacons but they fly the plane.’ It’s their plane,” Casse said. “If that’s his dream, I’m not going to rip it away from him, unless I feel like we’re putting her safety in jeopardy.”
Got Stormy was safe. Barber was right. And Casse was relieved.
