Mark Casse can be forgiven if he forgot about the anniversary of the greatest moment in his Hall of Fame trainer career. It was 10 years ago this weekend that Casse and his entourage were on their way to England to run the champion United States turf mare Tepin in the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) in the first race on the first day of the 2016 Royal Ascot Festival.
At his home base in Ocala, Fla., Casse was reached while in the midst of directing the June 12 traffic of his far-flung stable, with five entrants at four different tracks. Among them was the 2-year-old colt Greenwell, who bore the distinction as the first starter for Flightline , the undefeated 2022 Horse of the Year and all-around mythical creature. Greenwell finished second in the 5-furlong Churchill Downs maiden event, putting forth an effort that both pleased his trainer and set the table for appearances this summer during the Saratoga Race Course meet.
The phone call from a California area code sent Casse back a decade to vivid thoughts of Tepin, the daughter of Bernstein who labored in relative anonymity at ages 2 and 3 before bursting forth as the finest grass female of her generation. In her 15 races for owner Robert Masterson during the 2015 and 2016 campaigns, Tepin won 11 and finished second in the other four. Her grade 1 victories in North America included the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) and Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T) over colts. Casse spent most of those two seasons in jaw-dropping awe of his star, but never more than her performance down the straight course June 14, 2016, at Ascot.
"I knew it had been a while, but I didn't realize it had been 10 years," Casse said. "I guess time flies when you're having fun."
Given recent events, this would pass as an understatement. The Casse stable did everything but steal the show from Golden Tempo during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga by winning three grade 1 stakes in two days with Nitrogen, Counting Stars, and Classic Q. With more than six months to go in the 2026 season, the Casse troops are on a pace to top their all-time total of $23.2 million from 2025.
Royal Ascot commences June 16, with five giddy days of sport that test the most dedicated racegoers in terms of wardrobe, weather, and consumption of adult beverages. Winning one of the eight group 1 races during the festival is akin to ripping a walk-off homer in a World Series game, and everybody remembers details that normally would fade quietly into the haze. Casse is no exception.
"It was Robert Masterson's dream to go there, but it wasn't necessarily my dream," Casse said. "I don't know that I fully appreciated how tall a task it was. If I knew then what I know now, I'm not certain I would've gone."
Casse was not the first stateside trainer to attack the festival. Wesley Ward, who started cracking the code in 2009, has accumulated a dozen Royal Ascot wins, specializing in 2-year-olds and sprinters. Others have tried, but only Casse has brought a cup home after a major Royal Ascot score.
As strangers in a strange land, Casse and company did what due diligence they could, beginning with the comfort of having a European jockey at the controls for their British foray. Frenchman Julien Leparoux had been riding Tepin since the dawn of her 4-year-old campaign.
"We were under the assumption that he had ridden in Europe," Casse said. "Flying over with him, I said, 'Maybe you can show us around when we get there.' He looked me and said, 'I've never been there.'"
Even the owner doubled down on the misapprehension. When Masterson asked how many times Leparoux had competed at Royal Ascot, the answer was a firm "zero," which translates from the French as "zero."
Along with Norman Casse, the trainer's son and assistant, Casse and Leparoux walked the Ascot straightaway the afternoon before the race and hatched a plan.
"We came to the conclusion we'd go down the left side of the course," Casse said. "The right side has a tiny dip where the round course meets the straight. We also felt that because Tepin had spent her life running with the rail on her left, she would be more comfortable there."
The strategy became cloudy on race day when Casse learned horses had trained down the left side of the course that morning. He feared the soft ground might have been rendered even softer.
Then came the great saddling affair. Without the benefit of valets to handle tack, Casse had the choice of saddling Tepin at her holding stable or in the paddock. They chose the barn, away from public display in case something went awry.
"Being used to valets, both Norman and I had only been on the left side," Casse said. "I go to pull the girth, and the saddle went flying. Normally, the valet holds onto the saddle. Tepin just turned and looked at us like, 'How stupid are you guys?'
"Then, when we get to the paddock, Julien tells us the opposing riders would be aiming for the center of the broad course, rather than right or left," Casse said. "So there goes all our so-called preparations."
It didn't matter a whit to Tepin. She broke cleanly and seemed perfectly comfortable at the head of a pack chasing after a no-hoper on a long lead. With 2 furlongs to run, Leparoux threw a cross, smacked his mare on the left hip, and she was off to the races.
"After about a quarter of a mile, I started getting chest pains," Casse recalled. "I stopped cheering and thought, 'Am I having a heart attack?' But the pain was on the right side, and it passed. I took a deep breath and started cheering again."
Keeping to her right lead, Tepin plowed down the middle of the course. To her right loomed Godolphin and Prince A.A. Faisal's 4-year-old Belardo, who came close to upsetting the world-class miler Solow in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1) the previous fall at Ascot. Leparoux kept his cool, and Tepin held Belardo safe through a nail-biting final furlong to win by half a length.
Tepin polished off the rest of the year in style with a second Eclipse Award, then was sold to Coolmore the following year for $8 million. She died before her time in 2023, at age 12, though not before producing the major stakes winners Delacroix and Grateful. Casse reacted to the news with sadness, then called up a replay of the Queen Anne to bring back incomparable memories.
"Because she had already done so much, I don't think at the time I truly appreciated what she had accomplished," Casse said. "But having watched Royal Ascot so often since then, I understand.
"While we were there, we were staying at a hotel that used to be a castle," Casse added. "Before the race, some of the guests asked if Tepin would be able to handle the soft ground. I told them I wasn't worried, so they all bet. When we got back to the hotel that evening, everybody started cheering."
