FUNNY how things change. In a matter of weeks, Mark Casse’s stable stars rocked the far-flung, all-consuming stable, producing 180-degree turns in mental acuity and acceptance for the jobs at hand.

Earlier this season, two-year-old champion Classic Empire fell apart in the post parade of the Holy Bull and finished a dull third. After the race, the enigmatic colt balked at training and it looked like the sun had set on any visions of the Kentucky Derby in May.

While all this was happening, two-time champion Tepin marched forward on the road to her six-year-old debut, breezing and exercising like the good soldier she had become over four seasons of brilliance. Then the gameboard went up in the air, pieces scattered.

Tepin, last year’s Royal Ascot heroine, refused to breeze over the Palm Meadows turf at the end of last month. Declaring that the she had ridden it to the beach, Casse and owner Robert Masterson agreed, announcing her retirement on Tuesday.

Sometimes the actors ad-lib, the story had an ending, perhaps, not the one written by Casse and Masterson, but an ending nonetheless.

While one star fell, another one rose again. Classic Empire won four of his five starts last year. The son of Pioneerof The Nile won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile – that was the highlight. The lowlight? The day he wheeled and dropped jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. at the start of the Hopeful. Talent combined with tumult, the John Oxley runner has never made it easy on the Casse team.

After a three-month freshening over the winter, he returned as the favorite for the Holy Bull in February and quickly dropped his basket.

He washed out before the race and faded in the race, succumbing to Irish War Cry and Gunnevera in a tepid performance. Casse blamed a foot abscess. Then things got worse as he returned to the work tab at Palm Meadows then refused to break off for a routine breeze in early March.

Casse had seen enough and transferred Classic Empire to the quiet confines of Winding Oaks Farm, a low-key training center in Ocala. Was the trainer grasping at straws or drafting a new plan?

A facile score in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on Saturday proved it was the latter. Julien Leparoux settled him in sixth, rode him confidently throughout and delivered him like the morning mail, nailing a half-length margin on Conquest Mo Money and Lookin at Lee.

“It was a tough winter, I am not going to lie,” Leparoux said. “Come January we expected so much from him and after the Holy Bull he just went downhill from there. It was hard to see whenever we got off the wagon, but at the same time we were running out of time.

“Today was the last race we could get before the Derby, so it was very important for us to get in. Mark and his team did an awesome job, so the credit goes to them.”

Classic Empire has created plenty of laptop trainers in his short career, all wondering what Casse was doing with the mercurial colt.

“I knew if we could get him here that he’d be tough. He’s been a challenge, but the last month and a half have been good, a lot of chapters to the book I’m writing,” Casse said.

“I was pretty nervous. We run a lot of places, but I was probably a little more nervous. I went and walked up and down inside, watched it on TV.

“About the eighth pole everybody around me started looking, because I was doing some yelling. I wasn’t sure he was going to get there. I was afraid that maybe late he’d get tired. But it was exciting. I’ll never forget it.”

Big hurdle cleared, Casse exhaled; at least for a moment.

“I think the toughest deal is over, getting to this point,” Casse said. “Now he won’t have to do too much going into the Derby.”

The Derby and all its hype will bring a new set of challenges. Assistant trainer Norm Casse’s words from last summer hang in the air. “This horse looks at everything and he doesn’t just look, he reacts,” Casse said. “He sees something, he stops.”

Who knows what Classic Empire will see next, but as far as his team, all they’re seeing are roses.