Casse Pursues Music City With Pounce, Time to Dazzle

Resolute Racing’s Pounce , a dual graded stakes winner at a mile on turf, pursues the richest stakes race of her career when she cuts back to 6 1/2 furlongs on grass to compete in the $2 million Music City Stakes (G2T) Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs.

The 7-2 morning-line favorite after taking the July 20 Lake George Stakes (G3T) at Saratoga Race Course and the Herecomesthebride Stakes (G3T) in March at Gulfstream Park, Pounce’s task could be made easier if the 4-1 second choice, Twirling Queen , remains stuck on the also-eligible list and does not start. Though the latter is a three-time ungraded stakes winner, preference in the race goes to horses with graded/group stakes wins and placings.

Due to massive purses bolstered by historical horse racing gaming, securing entry into a race at Kentucky Downs can be challenging. Thirty-two 3-year-old fillies were entered in the Music City, with 12 in the body of the field, four on the also-eligible list, and the rest excluded.

The $2 million purse for the Music City includes $1 million supplemented for Kentucky-breds, leaving those bred elsewhere to race for $1 million.

Though all five of Pounce’s turf starts for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse have been in two-turn races, she showed the ability to sprint in her unveiling last year in winning a six-furlong maiden race on dirt at Churchill Downs.

Dylan Davis, who tied for third in the standings at the recently concluded Saratoga meet and was aboard for her victory in the Lake George, rides.

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Martin Schwartz and Michael O’Callaghan’s Kairyu , second to Twirling Queen in the Coronation Cup Stakes at Saratoga for trainer Cherie DeVaux, is among her main rivals in the body of the field, as is Tracy Farmer’s Time to Dazzle , who romped in the Ontario Colleen Stakes (G3T) at Woodbine in wire-to-wire fashion. Casse also trains Time to Dazzle

Reflecting the depth and quality of the field, some graded-placed entrants, such as Pharoah’s Wine , are longshots. The latter, coming off a mile allowance win at Ellis Park and second in the Jessamine Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland last fall, is 20-1 on the morning line.

“She is a nice filly,” trainer Dale Romans said of the daughter of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah . “The interesting part is that I train her, I trained her mother, her grandmother, her (third) dam and (other family).”

Romans said, “It would be special to win this one,” pointing to the filly’s ties to the late Frank Jones, the former vice chair of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and vice president for the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, who died in August 2023. Romans trained for Jones for decades and the two were close friends.

Jones’ wife, Nancy Delony, is part owner of the horse along with William Pacella and Frank Shoop. They, along with Frank Jones, bred Pharoah’s Wine.

Romans is sprinting Pharoah’s Wine rather than running her 1 5/16 miles in another Kentucky Downs race, the $1.6 million Dueling Ground Oaks Invitational Sept. 11. She broke her maiden over the Kentucky Downs course last fall.

“It will be interesting backing her up; I think there is a chance she’ll like it,” Romans said. “The short route is probably (her) best.”