Throughout his career, Tampa Bay Downs trainer Mike Dini has proven he can compete and win against better-known conditioners. Yet when he dips his toe into deeper waters, he knows there are going to be skeptics.
“For years, when I’ve run horses in New York, I hear a lot of people say ‘He’s very underrated,’ ” Dini said, not quite sure how to interpret that seeming compliment.
Over the years, the sharp bettors have caught on: Give Dini quality racehorses, and they are more than likely to run to their potential.
Dini has three horses entered on Saturday’s Oldsmar card, which begins at 12:17 p.m. The gates will open at 10:30 a.m. to accommodate bettors wishing to wager on the Pegasus World Cup Invitational card from Gulfstream Park, which begins at 11 a.m.
Saturday is Cap Giveaway Day at Tampa Bay Downs, with the first 5,000 fans through the gates receiving the 2025 cap with the distinctive track logo with their paid admissions. Patrons can get their caps autographed during the afternoon by many of the track’s leading jockeys on the first floor of the Grandstand.
When it comes to Dini’s success on racing’s bigger stages, consider Straight Arrow, a then-4-year-old gelding who won a $95,000 allowance for New York-breds in August of 2023 in his third career start.
Three races later – after another victory in an allowance/optional claiming race, at the Belmont At The Big A Meet – Straight Arrow and jockey Jairo Rendon scored on a muddy Big A track in the $250,000 Empire Classic Stakes for New York-breds for Dini and owner Laura Barrish.
Straight Arrow is one of seven horses to have earned more than $300,000 competing from Dini’s barn. His more recent accomplishments – including four victories and a second from seven starters, over a span of three racing days – make Dini the Mother’s Restaurant Trainer of the Month.
Dini is fourth in the Oldsmar trainer standings with 11 winners.
Dini, who also serves as the President of the Tampa Bay Downs Division of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, has 40 horses at the track, including 17 he owns himself. “The horses have been running where they belong, and we’re starting to get our turf horses in,” said Dini, citing Saturday’s victory by 4-year-old gelding Ejtimaa in the Males Division of the Tampa Turf Test starter handicap series. “I think he is going to be a real nice horse down the road.”
Dini purchased Ejtimaa from breeder Shadwell Farm for $10,000 after his first start as a 2-year-old in September of 2023 at Horseshow Indianapolis.
Being recognized amongst his fellow horsemen is always a big deal. “All the races here are real tough,” said Dini, who is based at Monmouth. “You have horses coming from Gulfstream Park and everywhere else, and the competition has been solid since the meet started.”
Dini’s first training victory came in a $4,000 claiming race in 1995 at Thistledown with a horse he had purchased for $2,500, Glen Savoye. Dini raced the gelding eight times as his owner, winning two, before he got his own trainer’s license at Thistledown in Ohio in 1995.
Dini won a $4,000 claiming race with Glen Savoye in his first try as a conditioner, and the rest is a whole lot of history.
“That horse was my pet. I had planned to bring him to Tampa when I bought him but I was broke so I stayed in Illinois that winter,” the Chicago product said. “He was a nice horse and he won two out of three for me at Hawthorne.”
Glen Savoye also contributed to Dini’s understanding of the need to treat each horse as an individual, with their own personalities, abilities and needs. “I like all of my horses. Some people think something is wrong with a horse if they get beat, but some of them are slow and there is nothing wrong with them.” As the horsemen’s group president, Dini strives to help horsemen find options for horses that are ready to be retired.
“We have our own fund, and if a horse needs time off or needs to transition to another career, we can help that trainer until a new home can be found,” Dini said.
Meanwhile, Dini keeps proving he belongs. His horses have earned more than $1-million four consecutive years and five of the last six, with earnings exceeding $1.4-million in 2023 and 2024.
Dini has forged a successful decade-long relationship with Ballybrit Stable, owned by Dr. Alan Lustig. Their mare Dynatail won four stakes in her career while earning $546,475. Other quality performers for the Dini/Ballybrit pairing include homebred stakes winners Bramble Queen and Bramble Bay and multiple graded stakes-placed Bird’s Eye View, who earned more than $400,000.
Now, talk about things coming full circle: Dini is starting a 3-year-old Ballybrit homebred daughter of Dynatail named Dyna Soar in Saturday’s ninth race. And 11-year-old Bird’s Eye View, who made his 76th and final start last June at Monmouth, is a stable pony for the Dini barn.
“I have good help, and that helps a lot,” said Dini, who employs seven grooms, seven hotwalkers and three exercise riders.
Maldonado third in Eclipse Award voting. Gabriel Maldonado, who finished third in last season’s Oldsmar standings with 57 winners, tied for third in Eclipse Award balloting for 2024’s Outstanding Apprentice Jockey. The winners were announced in a gala ceremony Thursday night at The Breakers in Palm Beach.
Erik Asmussen, who led all apprentices with 127 winners, was a runaway winner with 168 votes. He is the son of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. J.G. Torrealba was second with 15 votes and Maldonado and Sofia Vives tied with 8 votes.
The 26-year-old Maldonado, who lost his apprentice weight allowance in September, returned to action here Jan. 17 and is 0-for-8 as he attempts the challenging adjustment from apprentice to journeyman.
The biggest story from the Eclipse Awards was the selection of 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna as Horse of the Year. The Ken McPeek-trainee, whose only defeat was a head loss to Fierceness in the Draftkings Travers Stakes at Saratoga, was 6-for-7, including victories in the Longines Kentucky Oaks, the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar and three other Grade I races.
Thorpedo Anna was a unanimous choice as Eclipse Champion 3-Year-Old Filly with all 208 votes. She joins Rachel Alexandra (2009) as the only 3-year-old fillies to win the Eclipse Horse of the Year honor.
Soul of an Angel, the now-6-year-old who finished fifth in last season’s Wayward Lass Stakes here before capturing a Tampa Bay Downs allowance/optional claiming event, was voted Champion Female Sprinter. Her major victories for trainer Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., included the Grade II Ruffian Stakes at Belmont At The Big A, the Grade III Princess Rooney Invitational at Gulfstream and the Grade I PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Del Mar.
Tohill joins riding colony. Ken Tohill, who has won 4,242 races in a 46-year career while racing primarily in the Midwest and Southwest, has joined the Tampa Bay Downs jockeys colony at the suggestion of trainer Jon Arnett. The 62-year-old Tohill has finished unplaced in his two starts, including today’s third race on Defiant Malice.
“I had a good meet for (Arnett) in Iowa last year,” said Tohill, who finished third in the Prairie Meadows standings with 63 winners. “My wife Robyn and Jon’s wife (Susan, also a trainer) are friends, and they have a lot of horses. I wasn’t doing much in Arizona (at Turf Paradise), so they invited us to come here. I hope to get lucky enough to get some opportunities.”
Tohill said he is impressed by the quality of the riders at Tampa Bay Downs, as well as the consistency of the main dirt surface. “There’s good competition here, and the racetrack is delightful to me. It’s very consistent,” he said. “The racetracks in New Mexico and Arizona are clay-based and harder to maintain.”
Tohill’s biggest career victory, and only graded-stakes score, came on 35-1 shot Wild On Ice in the Grade III Sunland Park Derby in 2023. He rode 79 winners last year, so it will be interesting to see how he fits here and how many chances he’ll get in a crowded colony.
Around the oval. Samuel Marin rode back-to-back winners today. He won the sixth race on Save the Bees, a 4-year-old filly owned and trained by Yoni Orantes. Marin added the seventh with Cleopatra’s Nile, a 4-year-old filly owned by Bruce D. Gans and trained by Kathleen O’Connell.
Tampa Bay Downs conducts racing each Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The track is open every day 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.
