It’s been said the most optimistic people in the sports universe are Thoroughbred owners and trainers with a good 2-year-old in their barns.
Expect to see a lot of positive folks at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday.
It’s Cotillion Festival Day, with nine races comprised entirely of 2-year-olds. There are 95 entered, including the cream of the Oldsmar juvenile crop – eight colts and geldings in the $125,000, 6-furlong Inaugural Stakes and nine fillies in the $125,000, 6-furlong Sandpiper Stakes. Both races are on the main dirt track.
Post time for Saturday’s first race is 12:44 p.m. The Inaugural is the sixth race, with the Sandpiper the eighth.
Also Saturday, Flight of Fancy, a 2-year-old half-sister to unbeaten 2022 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Horse of the Year Flightline, will make her career debut in the fourth race under the silks of her breeder and owner, Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind Equine, LLC. Miguel Vasquez will travel from Gulfstream Park to ride the Bill Mott-trained Flight of Fancy, who has been working at Payson Park Training Center in Indiantown, Fla., for the race.
There are 13 2-year-old fillies entered in the 6-furlong maiden special weight event on the dirt.
“Tampa Bay Downs has put together a real nice card for 2-year-olds Saturday, and it’s going to be a very exciting day,” said trainer Michael Yates, who bred and owns Inaugural longshot Mila’s Wish in partnership with his wife Georgie under their Shadybrook Farm banner.
Those 2-year-olds with stakes credentials that a lot of people on the backside have been talking about since the meet started two weeks ago? Most are in the same situation, with a lot to prove before their connections decide whether to start aiming a little higher.
“They all look fast when they aren’t facing much,” said Tim Hamm, who trains Inaugural entrant Tapirs Valor for owner Runnymoore Racing, LLC. “Now we’re all trying to figure out where they fit when the competition gets tougher.”
Kevin Rice, who trains Inaugural longshot Mr. Squeaky Wheels for Bella Mia Stables, LLC and Sandpiper entry Carroll’s Honor for breeder-owner Donald L. Ming, believes both are ready to take a step forward Saturday. But there are no certainties.
“We hope they are good enough to go to the next level and run the 7/8-mile stakes (the $150,000 Pasco Stakes for 3-year-olds and the $150,000 Gasparilla Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, both on Jan. 11),” Rice said. “Some horses will show a lot of speed early on but never take another step up.
“Class-wise, that’s what we’re all trying to figure out – is this horse as fast as the ones they’re getting ready to face?”
Both of Rice’s horses will be ridden by Israel Rodriguez.
Oddsmakers well-versed in speed figures, fractional race times and other such minutiae have crunched the numbers and determined that Donut God, a colt who won his only start on Nov. 14 at Churchill Downs in gate-to-wire fashion on a sloppy track in a swift 57.91 seconds for 5 furlongs, merits the role as 6-5 morning-line favorite for the 39th edition of the Inaugural (he earned $69,000 from that debut race for owner Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing, LLC).
Trainer Brian Lynch, who won the Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby and the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes in 2022 with Classic Causeway, has been highly impressed with Donut God since the son of Into Mischief arrived in his barn in early August.
“He’s coming into (the Inaugural) with a reputation. Time will tell, but he has always been a professional little horse,” Lynch said. “He’s been very precocious, fast from the gate and a quick learner. He’s just real smart.
“He’s not real big, about 15 hands and 3, but there’s plenty of him. This is a competitive field and most of them have more experience than he does, but I think he’s up to the task.”
Leading Oldsmar jockey Samy Camacho has the riding assignment on Donut God, who will break from the No. 5 post. “He’s a straightforward horse, so I’m just going to tell (Camacho) to grab a handful of mane when he leaves the gate and hang on,” Lynch said.
Camacho has won three of the last four editions of the Inagural, including last year on Patriot Spirit.
Lynch and Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing have entered Florida-bred filly Mrs Worldwide in the 47th running of the Sandpiper. She will be ridden by Samuel Marin. Mrs Worldwide won her most recent start, the Juvenile Fillies Sprint Stakes on Nov. 16 at Gulfstream.
Second choice for the Inaugural at 3-1 is Naughty Rascal, a colt owned by Mr. Pug, LLC and J.P.G. 2, LLC and trained by Gerald Bennett, a nine-time training champion at the Oldsmar oval. Naughty Rascal, who will be ridden by Vasquez, is 3-for-4 with two stakes victories, both at Gulfstream.
Naughty Rascal has worked out three times at Tampa Bay Downs, including a 5-furlong bullet breeze on Nov. 24 in 1:00 3/5.
Tapirs Valor, who will be ridden by Pablo Morales, is third choice on the morning line at 5-1. He was acquired privately by his current connections after breaking his maiden on Oct. 18 at Keeneland in his second career start. Morales has piloted Tapirs Valor in his local workouts, experience that could pay off Saturday.
The other Inaugural entrant with single-digit odds is the Gary Contessa-trained gelding Epitaph, set at 6-1. Rosario Montanez is scheduled to ride for owners Joseph M. Grant, Yellow Moon Stable, Can Do Racing, LLC and Leonard Ficarelle.
Epitaph will be running on dirt for the first time in four career starts.
On paper, the Sandpiper appears more wide-open than the Inaugural, with five of the nine fillies opening at odds of between 3-1 and 6-1. The morning-line favorite is Dancing Magic, owned by Mellon Patch, Inc., and trained by Michael Campbell. Antonio Gallardo is the jockey.
Trainer Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., who was third in North America this year in victories with 247 entering today’s action, appears to have two serious contenders. Andrea, who will be ridden by Camacho, is 2-for-3, including a victory on Sept. 14 in the Hallandale Beach Stakes at Gulfstream. Joseph’s other entrant, Paradise City, will be ridden by Micah J. Husbands.
Contessa could have a contender in Another Cleeshay, who will have Morales in the irons. And Florida-bred La Gioconda, trained by Gustavo Delgado with Vasquez set to ride, was so impressive in her debut score on Oct. 13 at Gulfstream that she could be the primary topic of discussion Saturday night with a similar performance.
All optimism aside, at this level you pays your money ($400 to pass the entry box, $400 to start) and you takes your chances. In the spirit of the occasion, Mary Lightner – the owner and trainer of 10-1 shot Candycrumbs in the Inaugural – is confident her Colonial Downs stakes winner, who will have Gallardo in the saddle, is going to make his rivals take notice.
“His last race (a fourth-place finish on Nov. 9 at Gulfstream) was 7 furlongs, and I like him backing up in distance,” Lightner said. “He’s been training well, and I like the timing of this race. Plus I like Tampa Bay Downs, so it’s just like everything has kind of come together.”
There is also plenty of exciting simulcast action on tap Saturday. Book’em Danno, Oldsmar trainer Derek Ryan’s 3-year-old gelding who won the Pasco Stakes here in January and has gone on to become a Grade I winner and $1-million earner, will face 10 rivals in the Grade II, $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap Presented by TwinSpires.com at Aqueduct in New York. Irad Ortiz, Jr., will ride Book’em Danno for Ryan and owner Atlantic Six Racing.
The Cigar Mile is the ninth race at Aqueduct, with a scheduled post time of 12:35 p.m.
Around the oval. Samuel Marin rode two winners today. He captured the third race on Hunters Ghost, a 5-year-old gelding owned by William W. Guess and trained by Jon Arnett. Marin added the eighth race with Citational, a 3-year-old filly owned by Courtlandt Farms and trained by Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III. Citational, who won by 10 ¼ lengths, triumphed in 1:38.77 for the mile-and-40-yard distance, .09 seconds off Downtowner’s 2021 track record.
In today’s featured ninth race, a $54,000, mile-and-a-sixteenth allowance/optional claiming contest on the turf for horses 3-years-old-and-upward, 13-1 shot Fortune Seller was elevated to first place via disqualification after the first horse across the finish line, Adios Cole, interfered with fourth-place finisher A Western Yarn in the stretch.
The official top three following the DQ were Fortune Seller, Awesome Bourbon and A Western Yarn, with Adios Cole dropped to fourth.
Fortune Seller, who was ridden by Israel Rodriguez, is a 3-year-old gelding owned by Bella Mia Stables and trained by Kevin Rice.
Tampa Bay Downs is open every day except Dec. 25, Christmas 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.
