Mark Casse still remembers the words he spoke 50 years ago.
Long before he was voted into both the American and the Canadian Hall of Fame, 10-year-old Casse shared with his dad, Norman, an ambition that has only grown more fervent with the passing of time.
"I told him I wanted to be the trainer of the Kentucky Derby winner," Casse said.
Though he has won a little more than 3,000 races in his training career, including the Preakness Stakes (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1), the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) has proven to be elusive.
Casse has sent out eight starters in the Run for the Roses, though none finished better than fourth.
Two-year-old champion Classic Empire was that fourth-place finisher and in the May 1 $3 million edition of the 1 1/4-mile classic, he'll take a page out of that 2017 playbook by sending out two entries for the second time.
On this occasion, the duo will consist of the unbeaten Helium and the practically perfect Soup and Sandwich. Though neither figure to approach the 6-1 odds of Classic Empire, the longshot nature of the two hopefuls has not diminished any of the optimism brewing in both camps.
A recent morning at Churchill Downs illustrated that confidence.
Shortly after working Soup and Sandwich, his jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, exclaimed, "I'm going to win the Kentucky Derby!" Nearby, Helium's rider in the Run for the Roses, Julien Leparoux, was aboard another of Casse's horses. Hearing what Gaffalione said, Leparoux steered his mount toward Soup and Sandwich and responded, "Sorry, but you'll be a good second."
"I liked hearing that from both of them," Casse said. "Tyler actually seems more confident about Soup and Sandwich than he did War of Will before the Derby."
War of Will was at the center of the infamous foul that led to the disqualification of Maximum Security from first to 17th in the 2019 Kentucky Derby, but then rebounded from a seventh-place finish to capture the Preakness for Gaffalione and Casse's first Triple Crown triumph.
A homebred 3-year-old son of Into Mischief owned by Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Plantation, the speedy Soup and Sandwich started his career with maiden and allowance optional claiming wins before overcoming some troubles to finish a game second, 2 3/4 lengths behind 6-1 Kentucky Derby hopeful Known Agenda in the March 27 Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa (G1).
"Why the Florida Derby was so encouraging is that he did a lot of things wrong. He misbehaved on the ride over to Gulfstream, he misbehaved in the paddock, and when (Known Agenda) went by him in the stretch, it surprised him, and he stayed on his left lead. He ran a large part of the stretch on his left lead," Casse said. "So, we've been doing a lot of schooling with him and working on getting him to switch leads."
Soup and Sandwich, who was no worse than second at any call in the Florida Derby, will need that speed Saturday as he landed post 19 in his bid to outrun his 30-1 morning-line price in his fourth career start.
"I'm excited," Weber said about the son of the Tapit mare Souper Scoop. "He's very young and very green, but he's very talented."
Weber said teaming with Casse and key staff personnel such as assistant trainer David Carroll for the last six years has helped to infuse more enjoyment into the sport, heightening the pleasure from Live Oak's fifth bid to secure an initial Kentucky Derby win.
"Mark has brought fun back to the game," said Weber, a granddaughter of Campbell Soup founder John T. Dorrance. "He's a super communicator. I've got reengaged thanks to him and his staff. He has excellent help. They are a great undercard."
Casse has been known to run horses on short rest and was rewarded in 2019 when the filly Got Stormy beat males in the Fourstardave Handicap (G1T) on a week's rest. Yet with Helium, Casse will be taking an opposite approach, running the son of Ironicus on 56 days rest since his victory in the March 6 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G2). If it works, that would shatter the previous mark of days between starts by a Run for the Roses winner on the first Saturday in May, which currently stands at 42 by Animal Kingdom (2011) and Needles (1956).
"I'm trying to give everyone a fair chance," Casse said with a chuckle.
"Actually, giving Helium the time off was a no-brainer," he continued. "I just thought his race at Tampa was so powerful that given the layoff, why come back before the Derby? If we came back in 30 days, it would have made it more than likely that there would have been some kind of a bounce. We knew he had qualified for the Derby, so I weighed the assets and the liabilities and I thought the assets of resting outweighed the liabilities."
Helium, owned by Len Green's D. J. Stable, made his dirt debut in the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby after posting seven-furlong wins in a maiden race and stakes on the all-weather track at Woodbine.
"His last race was so much better than it looks on paper," Casse said about the three-quarters-of-a-length win over Kentucky Derby starter Hidden Stash. "In my 30 years of training, he overcame more than any other horse ever did. He was off for 4 1/2 months, he had never run on dirt or run around two turns, and had such a wide trip."
Helium, who drew post 12 for the Kentucky Derby and was priced at 50-1, was 10th in the Tampa Bay Derby before launching a sweeping, five-wide move that pushed his record to 3-for-3 and prompted his connections to pay a $6,000 late nomination fee for the Triple Crown. Bought for $55,000 from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale, he was bred by Teneri Farm and Bernardo Alvarez Calderon out of the Thunder Gulch mare Thundering Emilia and has earned $287,763.
"He's push-button. He does what he needs to do and that's it," Casse said about the half brother to Peruvian grade 1 winner Emilia's Moon. "I've always said that he's a better racehorse than workhorse. If you just watch him train in the morning, you would say he's just average. But he has this habit. He doesn't like to lose in the afternoon."
Nor does Casse, and should he win Saturday's 12th race at Churchill Downs it will earn him the revered status of being the just the fifth active trainer to achieve a personal Triple Crown, joining D. Wayne Lukas, Bob Baffert, Nick Zito, and Barclay Tagg. Yet it's not a spot in racing history that is foremost on his mind. It's his words from five decades ago.
"I really want to win the Kentucky Derby," Casse said. "It's what I've always wanted to do."
