And One More Time Resumes Comeback in Tropical Park Oaks

G1 Winner Among Four Live Oak Entries in 3YO Filly Grass Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Live Oak Plantation’s Grade 1 winner And One More Time, who beat older horses in her first race in more than a year, is back in against her own age group as she continues her comeback in Saturday’s $125,000 Tropical Park Oaks at Gulfstream Park.

The 31st running of the Tropical Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies co-headlines an 11-race program with the 50th renewal of the $125,000 Tropical Park Derby for 3-year-olds, both scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the grass. First race post time is 12:20 p.m.

Trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, And One More Time put together back-to-back wins to cap her juvenile campaign, starting with a 4 ¾-length maiden special weight romp at Saratoga rained off the turf to a muddy main track. Back in on the grass at Woodbine, she edged Vixen by a neck for a 16-1 upset in the one-mile Natalma (G1), with Nitrogen another 1 ½ lengths back in third.

Both also in the Casse barn, Vixen would go on to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1), win the Sweetest Chant and Herecomesthebride (G3) at Gulfstream last winter and place in a pair of Grade 2 stakes, while Nitrogen earned the 2024 Sovereign Award as Canada’s top 2-year-old filly, won Gulfstream’s Ginger Brew to kick off her sophomore season, and earn nearly $2 million in purses this year with graded-stakes wins on turf and dirt highlighted by the Alabama (G1) at Saratoga.

“She’s a really good horse. When she won the Natalma she beat Nitrogen and Vixen and little did we know how good those two would go on to be,” Casse said. “She got injured after that race and we gave her some time off. We really took our time with her. She came back and rewarded us with a nice win in her first start back.”

Despite facing her elders, And One More Time was favored in her Sept. 21 return – 373 days since the Natalma – and did not disappoint with a determined half-length optional claiming allowance triumph over Shotgun Wedding, a next-out winner of the Ontario Damsel.

“She ran well,” Casse said. “She’s got a lot of talent. She’s a little behind now because these horses have a lot more experience, so she’s kind of back in the learning part of running. But she’s a nice horse. I expect her to run well.”

Also entered for Casse is Live Oak’s Souper Zonda, who ran last of eight in the Oct. 11 Ontario Damsel on Woodbine’s all-weather surface after pressing the early pace. It was just her second start of the year and first in 10 months since beating older horses in a one-mile optional claiming allowance Aug. 2 at Woodbine, keeping her unbeaten on turf.

Casse indicated neither horse would run if the race is moved off the grass to the all-weather Tapeta course.

“She’s two-for-two on the grass,” Casse said of Souper Zonda. “Her first race back this year at Woodbine was very impressive. We felt that she wasn’t as good on the Tapeta but we wanted to give her a try. When you have these 3-year-olds as you’re seeing now with how big and how nice this field is, you have limited opportunities and that was the case in Toronto with Souper Zonda. So, we tried her on the synthetic, she didn’t like it [and] we won’t do that anymore.

“She’s trained well,” he added. “I’m not sure she’s the same caliber as And One More Time but we’re limited where we can run so we’re going to give it a shot. It’s a last chance to run against straight 3-year-olds and that’s important. That’s why you see these races, as they have been for years, they’re always filled. They’re great races.”

And One More Time drew Post 3 in an overflow field of 14 with Hall of Fame rider Javier Castellano and is the 5-1 third choice on a wide-open morning line. Souper Zonda (12-1) will break from Post 8 with Miguel Vasquez up.

Live Oak is also represented in the Tropical Park Oaks by Mischief in Motion and Souper Williwaw, both trained by Michael Trombetta. Mischief in Motion (Post 5, 10-1) was a front-running winner of the 1 1/8-mile Christina Sept. 27 on the Delaware Park turf and most recently finished second by a length in the Cellars Shiraz at Gulfstream’s course and distance Oct. 31. She has two wins and a second in four tries since being moved to the grass over the summer.

“It looks like she hit another gear when she got on the grass,” Trombetta said. “She kind of tailed off a little bit on the dirt where she wasn’t running to expectations, so we moved her over to the grass and she seemed to step it up. She’s done good. I’m looking forward to running her.”

Souper Williwaw (Post 2, 12-1) has put together two straight wins separated by four months, one each at Monmouth and Laurel Park, both over older horses and going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Her maiden triumph in June came by seven lengths, but she also showed some grit to forge a half-length victory in her first try against winners Oct. 21.

“She’s coming off a little bit of a break. We ran her off the layoff and she was good enough to win. I don’t know exactly how good the filly really is, but we’ll test her a little bit in stakes company,” Trombetta said. “She’s training good. This will be a test for her, but it’s kind of where she’s taken us.”

The lukewarm 3-1 program favorite is Steve Landers Racing’s Grade 3 winner Destino d’Oro, a Brad Cox trainee that drops in class following three consecutive graded-stakes attempts. The typically late-running filly, beaten a head in the 1 1/16-mile Jessamine (G2) last fall at Keeneland, won Ellis Park’s 1 1/8-mile Pucker Up (G3) Aug. 3 in her second start of the year but has been off the board in her last two including the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) Oct. 11.

Trainer Brian Lynch, already with five wins from just eight starters at the Championship Meet which opened Thanksgiving Day, will send out the pair of Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing’s Supa Speed and Nosleeptilbrooklyn. Supa Speed (Post 10, 7-2) will be racing first time for Lynch after going 2-2-1 in seven starts for California-based John Sadler, beaten a nose when second in the Santa Ysabel (G3) and most recently fourth in the April 7 Ashland (G1) at Keeneland. Nosleeptilbrooklyn (Post 11, 30-1) was sixth last out in the Cellars Shiraz.

Also entered are Smart Union (Post 1, 12-1), a winner over the course Feb. 9 but unraced since the March 8 Florida Oaks (G3); Crafty Collector (Post 7, 10-1) and Ramsey Pond (Post 6, 12-1), respectively first and third in the Cellars Shiraz; It Ain’t Two (Post 9, 10-1), third in the Ontario Colleen (G3) in July at Woodbine; Miss Mary Nell (Post 12, 30-1) and also-eligibles Brown Sugar (Post 13, 20-1) and Jalila (Post 14, 15-1).