For the second year in a row, dual Hall-of-Fame trainer Mark Casse has a string at Colonial Downs. If year two goes as well as the first, Tracy Farmer’s Fev Rover (Ire) will secure a second Grade 2, $500,000 Beverly D title for the trainer. With six entries on Sunday’s Festival of Racing 12-race program, Casse’s other shot at graded stakes glory comes in the Grade 2, $500,000 Secretariat with Gary Barber’s In a Jam.

Fev Rover will face five fillies and mares including Moira, the 2-1 morning line favorite for the Beverly D, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” race for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Sent off as the odds-on favorite in 2023, Fev Rover covered the 1-3/16 miles over the lawn on the lead throughout.

“We think she’ll be tough (to beat),” Casse said. “We could have some give in the ground, which doesn’t hurt our feelings.”

Ahead of last year’s triumph, Fev Rover won the Nassau (G2) in June and finished a game third in July’s Diana (G1). The 6-year-old began 2024 with a sixth-place finish to Didia in the New York (G1) followed by a runner-up finish behind Implicated next out in the Nassau.

“A lot of her issue lies in how she behaves prior to the race,” Casse said. “She misbehaved behind the gate last year in the Diana, and she did the same ahead of the New York this year. I don’t know if it kind of knocked her out a bit, but we ran her back in (the Nassau) and her effort was good, but not great.”

Six weeks since her last race, the daughter of Gutaifan has put in three strong half-mile drills at Woodbine, beginning on July 14.

“We felt she is a year older and it has been tougher to get her back to her top form this year, but we feel she is training better coming into this year’s (Beverly D) than she was ahead of last year’s, so we’re expecting a big effort,” Casse said.

The Beverly D is scheduled as Race 10.

In a Jam will face eight 3-year-old peers going one mile on the turf in the Secretariat.  Last out in the $125,000 Boston, the local prep, the Preservationist colt finished fourth to Fulmineo, who is set to run in the Secretariat. After prompting the leader and making the lead in the stretch, In a Jam faltered the final sixteenth of a mile. 

“There was a lot of give in the ground that day,” Casse said. “I’m not sure he’s fond of that. We know he loves Gulfstream and we all know Gulfstream is (a) very hard (turf). I don’t know what to think of him with the softer ground. He trained really well ahead of the last race. We were expecting a really big effort out of him. Then of course we got a lot of rain and (the course) got pretty soft. I think he should be better for the race, but he’s going to have to be – this is a tougher race.”

With a dominant win in the American Derby on his resume, Klein Racing’s Brilliant Berti was tabbed as the 5-2 morning line favorite ahead of Amerman Racing’s multiple graded stakes winner Trikari (3-1). The Secretariat is slated as Race 9.

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