A lifetime of hard work and extremely difficult times have taught Bill Cass many important lessons. Today, it keeps him grounded, despite the presence of a “special” two-year-old in his barn.
Story by Rob Longley
The bankroll in Bill Cass’s wallet is still brimming from a midweek trip to the casino in Niagara Falls where it seems he couldn’t find a slot machine that wouldn’t spit out a tidy profit.
Standing in the shedrow behind the 71-year-old trainer is a two-year-old colt that is on the verge of providing him with an even greater cash flow, something that has been elusive through his four-plus decades in the business. In the midst of a one-year extension of what he promised his wife would be his final run as a horseman, the Nova Scotia native can’t seem to lose.
Luck, like lightning, can strike at the least expected times.
In this case, the rather appropriately christened Luck Be Withyou is providing the thrills of a lifetime and promise of more for Cass, a potential punctuation to a long, grinding career in the sport.
In a life that has been saddened by family tragedy – though not been defined by it - Cass is hoping for a memorable ending, one that could be prolonged by the exploits of the the talented two-year-old son of Western Ideal.
“He’s just a special colt,” Cass says on a recent morning at the Baycairn Training Centre where his modest string is kept in good order. “He’s got the brains and you look at him and there’s not a flaw to him. He stands right. He’s got great lungs.
“He just looks like an equine athlete. He’s got it all together and he’s got the attitude.”
Though he had yet to win a stakes race in his first five career starts, Luck Be Withyou had certainly turned some heads and put Cass and longtime owner John Craig on the fringes of the spotlight. When the colt blitzed his way to a 1:51.3 mark in a conditioned race at Mohawk on August 5, he equalled a North American season’s record and was suddenly touted both for his talent and potential.
While two-year-old form can fluctuate wildly from August on, the reviews (and the big-money offers for Luck Be Withyou) have been through the roof.
Sticking with the luck storyline, for a while it looked like Cass wouldn’t even be in the game in 2013. A conversation with his wife Priscilla last summer led to tentative plans to call it a career. The fractured state of the industry in Ontario certainly didn’t help matters, nor did the fact that he was winding down in terms of starts and wins.
But when Craig got wind of that exit strategy, plans diverted with the owner managing to convince the trainer of taking one more shot at hitting it big. While both Cass and Craig have had their moments in the game, they’ve never had the monster horse together.
“I had promised my wife that I would retire and that when we were done with (2012) we would hand over the colts to somebody else,” Cass said. “John said ‘we’re not going out of this business on a downer. We’re going to have one more kick at the can and we’re going to spend some money.’ He said ‘You go down there and buy whatever you want and don’t worry about the cheque. Let’s try and make some money this year.’”
Before 2013 is finished, they may be able to do just that and more.
Just how much talent Luck Be Withyou carries under his harness may ultimately show itself in the big-money late summer events at Mohawk, specifically the $700,000 Metro Pace and the Champlain Stakes to follow. In his stakes debut on August 17, the colt disappointed his backers at the betting windows as he finished fourth to Arthur Blue Chip as the odds-on favourite in a division of the Nassagaweya Stakes. That said, a mile in 1:52.2 with close to half of it raced first over was hardly a disgrace.
The 40-plus years in the business have brought some good times for Cass, whose personable late brother Paul was a long-time Ontario Racing Commission judge. Early in his career, Cass campaigned as many as 40 horses and was a top trainer-driver at old Orangeville Raceway.
When he later ventured downtown to test the Ontario Jockey Club circuit, he campaigned some notable fan favourites such as claimer-turned-free-for-aller Samfrancisco Irv. (“Everybody loved watching him because he could win from anywhere,” Cass said of the winner of nearly $400,000 lifetime.)
Others such as Careys Pride and Windsong Cruiser kept the money flowing in as Cass has enjoyed a solid if perhaps unspectacular career.
“A lot of them have made a lot of money, but to get one that could make a million, I’ve never had one of those,” Cass said. “This is the best young one I’ve ever had.”
So impressive was Luck Be Withyou’s 1:51.3 effort in what on the program pages anyway looked like a modest two-year-old conditioned race, that it didn’t take long for the phone to start ringing with big offers. Just how big is up for some conjecture, but high six figures is a safe estimate. And this from a horse that earned his first two victories at long odds, including a 19-1 price in that brilliant breakthrough.
“My owner has been with me since the 80s, almost 30 years,” Cass said. “He’s just a great guy, like a brother to me. And he wants a good horse. We’ve turned down big money for this horse. Scary money.”
So what initially attracted Cass to his future star?
“There’s not a flaw in him,” Cass said, moments before hooking him up to the jog cart for his morning regimen days before his stakes debut. “He stands right and his attitude is so good.
“When I first saw him (prior to the sale), it was his disposition. You could pick up his feet and when there was crowds around him, he just stood there. He was like an old horse. He had everything you want in a horse.”
Though he trained down impressively, Luck Be Withyou was in no rush to make it to the winner’s circle. A pair of fifth-place finishes at Mohawk were in part due to a mild illness and some typical focus issues with a young horse.
“He didn’t know much about the track so you would move him down the backside and he was just gawking around,” Cass said. “So I took him in three times one week and three times the next week and then he caught on. Now he’s getting it like a pro.”
Just how far he goes this year will depend in part on how he progressed through the Metro, but for now Cass favours a conservative approach which could mean shutting down following the Champlain Stakes and passing on the Breeders Crown. In other words, the big picture is plenty attractive.
Cass isn’t a lifelong horseman, though at this point in his career it must seem like it with more than four decades worth of career stats. After hitchhiking west from Cape Breton Island in his 20s – “It was either work in the mines, or come here,” Cass said – he landed in Toronto where he opened a gas station on Yonge Street. That led to a similar venture north and west of the city in 1969 where soon after he would buy his first standardbred.
How did that work out? Well, by 1971 Cass wasn’t just owning but driving them but driving his well, in colours made by his wife Priscilla, no less. Soon, a large stable that shuffled mostly between Orangeville and Barrie was in operation. Life was good in the late 70s when Cass had more than 50 horses in total and a growing family. And then tragedy struck. One of his sons, Jimmy, was struck by a car and killed while crossing the road. He was just 14.
If that wasn’t cruel enough, 10 years later another son Joey, a budding harness driver, was also taken far too soon in another tragedy when his car was struck by a deer. A quarter of a century may have dulled the pain for Cass and his wife, but it will never truly disappear.
“It’s a big part of your make up after you go through something like that,” said Cass, who keeps a picture of both boys in his wallet. “When you say your prayers at night, you tell them.”
With all he has been through, good and bad, Cass is well aware how quickly fortune can fluctuate. But when it’s on your side, why not ride it?
Doing so isn’t without its challenges, however as Cass adjusts to life with Luck Be Withyou, a strain of pressure he’s never previously felt.
“It’s the first time I’ve lost sleep thinking about the next race,” Cass said. “But it’s a good thing. I suppose I’ve waited 43 years for this feeling. When you’ve got a horse worth that kind of money, you think about sleeping with him in the barn. He’s on my mind most of the time.”
Still a student after all these years
Bill Cass can chuckle at the notion of his sudden expertise at picking out young horses.
“So many people came to me after the sale and said ‘Did you get that Western Ideal and how did you get him for $77,000?’”, Cass said of his purchase of the three-quarter brother to American Jewel at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale.
“Me racing racehorses all my life, I can’t take credit for picking out two-year-olds, but I picked out three last year.”
Cass’s method of picking out Luck Be Withyou - out of the mare Trim Hanover - had a little madness to it as well.
Or common sense. After circling the yearlings he liked in his catalogue, the trainer looked around for confirmation he was on the right track. That was accomplished by sitting and observing what other more proven trainers in the yearling game were doing.
“I’d go to the sales and sit on a bench and watch,” Cass explained. “I like a horse to start with, but want to see who else likes them. They’ve got an eye for it. I can look at them all day but those guys see babies all the time and have done it over and over. That’s how you learn.
“Even at 71-years-old, you can still learn in this business.”