Casual Conquest was a bay horse with short white socks on his hind legs,[2] bred in Ireland by his owners, the Moyglare Stud.
[3] Casual Conquest's dam Lady Luck, who produced several other winners including Afternoon Sunlight (Derrinstown Stud 1,000 Guineas Trial) and Elusive Double (Tyros Stakes), won one minor race from two starts as a three-year-old in 1998.
After racing in fourth place he took the lead in the straight and held of a sustained challenge from the John Oxx-trained Hanoverian Brown to win by a short head.
The highly regarded Washington Irving (from Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle stable) started the odds-on favourite with the best-fancied of the other three runners being the Ballysax Stakes winner Moiqen.
[7] The result established the colt as a leading contender for the 2008 Epsom Derby even though he had not been entered for the race and could only run if his owners paid a supplementary entry fee of £75,000.
Three weeks later the colt returned to Ireland and was dropped in distance for the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup over ten furlongs at the Curragh and started at odds of 11/4.
The favourite was the Weld-trained Famous Name (Leopardstown 2,000 Guineas Trial, Trigo Stakes), while the other three runners were Lush Lashes, Thewayyouare (Critérium International) and Moiqen.
He started a 16/1 outsider and never looked likely to win, coming home seventh of the nine runners behind Sea the Stars and sustaining a leg injury in the process.