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'I Never Wanted To Do Anything Else': Mark Casse Celebrates 4,000-Win Milestone originally appeared on Paulick Report.
Dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse celebrated his 4,000th win in North America on July 17, 2025, when It's Witchcraft dug deep to prevail by a nose in the 11th race at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va.
Casse is the 14th trainer to achieve 4,000 wins.
“That was a close one. It’s unbelievable to me to be honest. 4,000, that’s a lot of wins and I joked that that means I lost a lot (of races), too,” Casse said from Saratoga. “For someone like me, who has spent my entire life – this is all I’ve ever done, this is the cherry on top. I told my wife I’d retire if hit 5,000 – she doesn’t believe me, so I said maybe 6,000.
"All the people around that give me their support and cheer for me, I appreciate it. 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 every day."
Antonio Gallardo piloted the winner for owner D.J. Stable, for whom the victory was number 2,600.
Mark Casse's 4,000th Win
“It means I'm old,” Casse joked to NYRA publicity last week as the milestone neared. “I've been doing this a long time. Who would have thought — 4,000. The first 1,000 was much tougher than the next 3,000 because we just didn't have the numbers. Going into the Hall of Fame meant I'd been good for a long time and that's probably what this milestone means.”
Casse is supported by a vast team that includes his wife, Tina, who is CEO of Casse Racing, as well as his New York-based assistant, Shane Tripp, along with U.S.-based assistants Nick Tomlinson-Alleyne, Allen Hardy, Omar Delcid Sanchez, and Caden Arthur. His Canadian team includes Head Assistant Trainer David Adams, as well as the three Sullivan sisters – Kathryn, Nancy and Sarah. In addition, his Casse Training Center in Ocala, Fla., includes a number of important colleagues in Mitch Downs, Cindy Black, and Jimmy Miranda.
“It’s truly a team,” Casse said. “I have 10 people that have been with me 35-plus years. Mitch Downs has been with me 45 years. A lot of the time I get the accolades, but without them it doesn't happen.
“It’s not just about winning,” he added. “It’s seeing all the hard work by all of us and appreciating that. If you go to our farm in Ocala, 90 percent of them watch all the races. Everyone is invested. It's truly a team and we do it together.”
The 64-year-old native of Indianapolis, Indiana, has enjoyed success across the continent and is amongst a unique group of four trainers that includes Roger Attfield, Lucien Laurin, and Horatio Luro to be enshrined in both the United States’ National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
Casse, son of the late horseman Norman Casse, won with his first starter, Joe’s Coming, on April 14, 1979, at Keeneland and nine years later won his first training title at the 1988 Churchill Downs’ spring meet.
“I never wanted to do anything else. When everybody else was trying to figure that out — I never had to. I always knew what I wanted to do,” Casse said.
He captured two-thirds of the U.S. Triple Crown in 2019, taking the Grade 1 Preakness with War of Will before upsetting the G1 Belmont Stakes with Sir Winston – a horse that exemplifies the patience and persistence of Casse’s training program.
A Kentucky homebred for Tracy Farmer, Sir Winston did not show much in his first two outings as a 2-year-old in 2018 when off the board in maiden races at Churchill and Saratoga. Casse sent the Awesome Again chestnut to Woodbine where he immediately graduated and began to thrive, winning the Listed Display that December.
Sir Winston tried the Kentucky Derby trail in Florida before redirecting to New York and running second in the G3 Peter Pan at Belmont Park – the local prep for the Belmont Stakes. He went to post at odds of 10-1 in the Belmont Stakes with Hall of Famer Joel Rosario at the helm, finding a seam through traffic and finishing powerfully down the lane to best Tacitus by one length.
“I don't give up easy,” Casse said. “Sir Winston got beat in his first couple of races almost 20 lengths. I took him to Woodbine, and he liked it there. He got some confidence and then he went on and won the Belmont. That was big for me because I felt like I had accomplished something not many can do and that's to not give up.”
Casse has won six Breeders’ Cup races, scoring with Catch a Glimpse [2015 Juvenile Fillies Turf], Tepin[2015 Mile], Classic Empire [2016 Juvenile], World Approval [2017 Mile], Shamrock Rose [2018 Filly and Mare Sprint] and Wonder Wheel [2022 Juvenile Fillies].
Of that group, the Hall of Famer Tepin stands tallest as Casse’s highest earner with more than $4.4 million in purse money from a 13-win career. The two-time Champion Turf Female [2015-16] bested males in both the 2015 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile and the 2016 Group 1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot. Her career concluded with a half-length defeat to Tourist in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
“We've had a lot of great horses, but I don't know how you go past Tepin,” Casse said. “She did it everywhere and came to play. Her win at Royal Ascot will go down in history. She just liked to run and nothing ever bothered her.
“Probably the best race she run was when she got beat in the Breeders' Cup by Tourist,” Casse continued. “She got put out of her element and she still almost won. Tourist cut the corner, and we went around. I've come to appreciate her even more now as we see all these horses try to go and run at Royal Ascot – she did it on their terms and on their strengths.”
Casse has dominated the trainer standings in Canada where he has topped the training tables at Woodbine on 16 occasions and is a 16-time winner of the Sovereign Award for Outstanding Trainer. He has trained Canada’s Horse of the Year on six occasions, including with Sealy Hill [2007], Uncaptured [2012], Lexie Lou [2014], Catch a Glimpse [2015], Wonder Gadot[2018], and Fev Rover [2023].
“Without my wife I would be in no Hall of Fames and without Woodbine I would be in no Hall of Fames,” Casse said. “That's how important Woodbine and Toronto is to me, and it continues to be. Woodbine is the best place to develop a horse. They have a wonderful training facility, the weather is nice and if you look at my Eclipse winners, my Breeders’ Cup winners, most of them have a footprint through Woodbine. When I’m bringing back old warriors, I send them through Woodbine.”
Big earners for Casse include World Approval [27-12-2-4, $3,062,363], Classic Empire [9-5-1-1, $2,520,220] and the popular chestnut mare Got Stormy [32-12-5-3, $2,468,403], who bested males in the Spa’s Grade 1 Fourstardave in 2019 and 2021.
Casse said that Classic Empire, the 2016 Champion 2-Year-Old Male, proved to be one of his biggest challenges as a trainer and nearly became the horse to provide him with the one major race he truly wants to win – the Kentucky Derby.
Owned by John C. Oxley, Classic Empire flashed brilliance with a rallying score at second asking in the 2016 G3 Bashford Manor at Churchill. The quirky colt, who was known to stop short in morning training, returned to action as the favorite in the G1 Hopeful at the end of the Spa meet and promptly wheeled outwards, sending jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. flying. Undaunted, his next two starts were Grade 1 scores under Julien Leparoux in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita Park.
“My toughest task as a horse trainer was probably Classic Empire,” Casse said. “He came out of the gate in the Hopeful, took a right-hand turn and lost Irad. During the winter he wouldn't train. It's tough to get ready for the Kentucky Derby when your horse won't go.
“We finally got him going and he ended up winning the Arkansas Derby,” Casse continued. “He should have won the Kentucky Derby, but he got wiped out. That was before they had one gate, and he was in the 14 hole – they all came down on him because of that big space between the gates. It almost knocked Julien out of the saddle.”
Classic Empire landed fourth in the Derby, was second, by a head, to Cloud Computing in the Preakness and did not make the Belmont Stakes due to a hoof abscess that ultimately led to his retirement.
Gary Barber’s War of Will is another that nearly brought Casse an elusive Derby win. The War Front bay won the G3 Risen Star in February 2019 at Fair Grounds and after an off-the-board effort there in the G2 Louisiana Derby, he went to post at odds of 16-1 in the Run for the Roses with regular pilot Tyler Gaffalione up.
War of Will exited the inside post in a field of 19 and saved ground in a close-up fourth through the far turn as Maximum Security showed the way. Gaffalione angled War of Will off the rail to the outside of Maximum Security with what looked like a winning move – but the pacesetter drifted out and War of Will checked hard on heels, his momentum stopped. War of Will fought on gamely down the lane but weakened late and crossed the wire a 4 1/2-length eighth, elevated to seventh when Maximum Security was disqualified for the interference.
Casse watched the drama unfold with his son, trainer Norm Casse, as a shot at victory evaporated in a matter of seconds.
“Norman was standing with me, and they were in the middle of the turn and he put his arm around me and said, 'Dad, you're going to win the Kentucky Derby' and then Maximum Security took us out about 100 yards later,” lamented Casse. ”I've been very fortunate in my life. If I don't win the Kentucky Derby, I'll be alright.”
And yet, he’s going to keep on trying to fulfill that dream with no immediate plans to retire from the sport he loves.
“I told my wife recently I’m going to retire at 5,000 wins and she said, ‘I've heard that story before, and I don't believe it for one second!” said Casse, with a laugh.
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Jul 17, 2025, where it first appeared.