William S. Farish's Casual Look, winner of the classic Vodaphone Epsom Oaks (Eng-I) in 2003, has been retired from racing and is scheduled to join the broodmare band at Farish's Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Ky.Trainer Neil Howard said that Farish, who currently serves as the United States' Ambassador to England, plans for his homebred daughter of Red Ransom to be bred to Horse of the Year contender Mineshaft. Mineshaft, a 4-year-old son of A.P. Indy owned and bred by Farish, James Elkins and W. Temple Webber, Jr., is preparing for his first season as a stallion at Lane's End and will stand for a stud fee of $100,000 in 2004.In her final race, Casual Look finished fifth over "yielding" turf in Saturday's $150,000-added Mrs. Revere Stakes (gr. IIT) at Churchill Downs. It was her only start for Howard, who oversees Farish's horses in the U.S. and who trained Mineshaft to four grade I triumphs this year.
"She may not have cared for the soft ground in the Mrs. Revere, but Casual Look still closed well and put in a very good effort at a distance that may not have been her best," said Howard. "She came out of the race perfectly and now Mr. Farish has decided that her future is in the breeding shed. It was wonderful to have Casual Look in our stable for even a short time and we're very excited to see that she will be one of the first mares bred to Mineshaft."Casual Look, who is out of the Manila mare Style Setter, completed her racing career with a record of 2-2-3 in 12 races and earned $602,657.She was trained through most of her 3-year-old season by Andrew Balding, who saddled Casual Look for her neck victory over Yesterday in the Epsom Oaks and a third-place finish to Vintage Tipple and L'Ancresse in the Irish Oaks (Ire-I) over the same distance at The Curragh. She was a fast closing third for Balding in the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (gr. IT) at Keeneland in her only other start in the United States.