On the professional golf tours, Saturday is referred to as “moving day,” when players trailing the leader attempt to cut into the margin and give themselves a chance to win during Sunday’s final round.
For Samy Camacho, just about every day this month could be moving day as he tries to narrow the gap between himself and leader Samuel Marin in the Tampa Bay Downs jockey standings. After riding four winners today, while Marin was shut out, Camacho trails 92-84 with 18 days remaining.
Camacho is bidding to win his fifth consecutive title and sixth overall, which would tie him with Mike Manganello and Daniel Centeno for the most in track history.
Marin is seeking to add another title to the one he captured last fall at Meadowlands in New Jersey.
Camacho will get at least one extra day to rally, since Marin is headed to Aqueduct on Saturday to ride Statesman in the Grade II, $750,000 Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by Resorts World Casino and Pure Beauty in the Grade III, $200,000 Gazelle Stakes. Both 3-year-olds are trained by Hall of Famer Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III.
The odds are in Marin’s favor, but it is premature to count out Camacho given his standard of excellence the last four seasons.
“Everything is in God’s hands. I leave it that way,” Camacho said. “I believe in myself 100 percent. I have to say thanks to God, because he put me in the place I am, and to my family for supporting me all the time, and to my agent Mike Moran. And thanks to the trainers and owners who give me a chance to ride good horses.”
Kathleen O’Connell is virtually assured of winning her fourth Tampa Bay Downs training title. She has a 45-33 edge on current runner-up Juan Arriagada (trainers don’t have as many starts as jockeys), and O’Connell shows no signs of slowing as the meet enters its final month.
She previously won Oldsmar crowns in 1998-99, 2009-10 (tied with Jamie Ness) and last season.
Arriagada is on the verge of taking home his third consecutive Leading Owner trophy. He has 32 winners as a sole entity and in various partnerships, more than twice the amount of his nearest pursuers.
Sara Hess is the leading apprentice jockey with 19 winners.
Around the oval. Camacho won the first race on Cox Canyon, a 5-year-old gelding owned by Roger B. Sterling and trained by Michael Simone. Cox Canyon was claimed from the race for $5,000 by trainer Peter Wasiluk, Jr., for new owner Brice Bowerman. Camacho added the third race with Old Town Road, a 6-year-old gelding owned and trained by Arriagada.
Camacho then took the ninth race with Lady Quinn, a 5-year-old mare owned by Frank D’Amato and trained by Jose H. Delgado. He completed a sweep of the late daily double in the 10th race on the turf, winning aboard Three Run Bolt for owners Averill Racing and Jayson R. Werth and trainer Gerald Bennett.
For his part, Bennett also won the fifth race on the turf with Secret Victory, a 3-year-old filly owned by Tropic Lightning Racing and ridden by Melissa Iorio. Secret Victory is a full sister to Tropic Lightning and Bennett’s Turf Dash Stakes winner, 4-year-old gelding Rouki.
Jose Ferrer and Daniel Centeno each rode two winners today. Ferrer won the second race on I Believe in Magic, a 6-year-old Florida-bred mare owned by M and W Stables, LLC and trained by Kelly Breen. Ferrer also won the fourth on Baba’s Baby Boy, a 4-year-old gelding owned by Gary Ellebracht, Virginia L. Hoover and Nicole M. Hoover and trained by Ellebracht.
Centeno won the seventh and eighth races back-to-back. He took the seventh on the turf with Linny Kate, an 8-year-old mare owned by Three Crowns Farm and trained by John Rigattieri. Centeno and Rigattieri teamed to win the eighth with Uncaptured Boy, a 5-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Monarch Stables.
Thoroughbred racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and is open every day except April 20, Easter, for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.
