After watching Naughty Rascal breeze 4 furlongs in 49 1/5 seconds this morning, trainer Gerald Bennett believes the 3-year-old colt is coming up to Saturday’s $150,000, 7-furlong Pasco Stakes as well as can be hoped for.
“It was just a maintenance breeze, but Brian (Pedroza, the exercise rider) said he had tons of horse,” Bennett said. “(Naughty Rascal) got mad Brian didn’t let him gallop out stronger.”
Bennett has high hopes Naughty Rascal, who is 3-for-5 with two stakes victories at Gulfstream Park, will improve on his second-place finish in the 6-furlong Inaugural Stakes here on Dec. 7 to Donut God, who set a stakes record of 1:09.13 in the process.
But while trainer Brian Lynch has opted to point Donut God to the Swale Stakes on Feb. 1 at Gulfstream Park for his next start, he’s sending another foe for Naughty Rascal to contend with in Owen Almighty, a stakes-winning colt whose last race resulted in a second-place finish in the Grade III, 1-mile Iroquois Stakes on Sept. 14 at Churchill Downs to Jonathan’s Way. Both Owen Almighty and Donut God are owned by Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing, LLC.
Naughty Rascal and Owen Almighty are expected to head a field of at least nine 3-year-olds in the 27th running of the Pasco Stakes, which heads a quality-packed Skyway Festival Day card. Lynch and Bennett charges are also expected duel in the 41st edition of the $150,000, 7-furlong Gasparilla Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, with Lynch sending Dec. 7 Sandpiper Stakes winner Mrs Worldwide – also owned by Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing – back to Oldsmar from her Palm Meadows Training Center base in Boynton Beach and Bennett countering with promising Tampa Bay Downs maiden winner Vuela Paloma.
Lynch said both Owen Almighty and Mrs Worldwide will be ridden by superstar jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. Bennett will use Edwin Gonzalez, who won the fall Gulfstream Park meet, on Naughty Rascal, with Daniel Centeno staying on Vuela Paloma.
The third stakes on the card is the 41st running of the $100,000, mile-and-a-sixteenth Wayward Lass Stakes for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward. Peignoir, a 4-year-old filly owned by Fletcher and Carolyn Gray and Doug Hesterly and trained by Rodolphe Brisset, won back-to-back starts last fall at Keeneland and Churchill Downs and should be among the favorites.
As is usually the case this time of year, it’s the 3-year-old colts and geldings receiving the lion’s share of the attention. Both Lynch and Bennett view the Pasco as a logical stepping stone to the Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes here on Feb. 8, a mile-and-a-sixteenth contest that is also a “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points race.
“Donut God is still doing great, but we felt like he could do with a little more time. And Owen Almighty needs to run, and I think he could be better suited to the Sam F. Davis and the (Grade III Lambholm South) Tampa Bay Derby if he runs good in the Pasco,” said Lynch, who described Owen Almighty’s 4-furlong breeze of 47.60 from the Palm Meadows starting gate “a refresher.
“We just wanted to knock the cobwebs off and make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed,” Lynch said. He added that Owen Almighty is fully recovered from an illness he compared to “irritable bowel syndrome” that led him to give the colt time off after the Iroquois, rather than push him to make the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance in November.
Bennett, who won eight consecutive Tampa Bay Downs training titles before being dethroned last season by Kathleen O’Connell, thinks Naughty Rascal is every bit as good as his record suggests. A $39,000 Ocala Breeders’ Sales March 2024 2-year-old purchase, he is owned by Mr Pug, LLC and J.P.G. 2, LLC.
“He’s already won going two turns (in the Armed Forces Stakes on the turf at Gulfstream on Nov. 2), and in the race he lost there (the Sept. 21 Aventura Stakes, finishing third), he was bumped hard at the break and had his feet knocked out from under him,” Bennett said. “He’s been breezing every week and is ready to go.”
Other potential Pasco Stakes starters include Cockeyed, trained by Terri Pompay; Very Bold, from the barn of Eoin Harty; Normandy Coast, trained by Eddie Kenneally; trainer Danny Gargan’s Rookie Card; Rolando, trained by Fausto Gutierrez; Latch the Hatch, conditioned by Joseph Orseno; and Juan Colorado, trained by Abraham Gardea.
Mrs Worldwide, who rallied under leading Tampa Bay Downs jockey Samuel Marin to win the Sandpiper by a half-length from Hollygrove, may be even tougher to beat in the hands of Irad Ortiz, Jr., who has led all North American jockeys in victories the last eight years. But Bennett is high on Vuela Paloma, who showed exceptional speed in her gate-to-wire victory under Centeno in a maiden special weight race on the Inaugural/Sandpiper undercard.
Vuela Paloma’s 6-furlong time was 1:10.40, .33 seconds slower than Mrs Worldwide in the Sandpiper. Vuela Paloma is owned by Bennett’s Winning Stables in partnership with Larry R. Fritts, Sr., and his son Rick Fritts.
“(Her opponents) better have their running shoes on. She’s been training lights out, and I think if she gets a good break she’ll be tough to beat,” Bennett said. “And I think she’ll love two turns. When she won that last race, Daniel said he had a ton of horse galloping out.”
Other potential Gasparilla Stakes starters as of press time included third-place Sandpiper finisher Dancing Magic, from the barn of Michael Campbell; Fontana Di Trevi, trained by Antonio Sano; Another Cleeshay, trained by Gary Contessa; and Tessitura, conditioned by Eoin Harty.
Expect the field for the Wayward Lass to continue to take shape over the next few days. Those who are probable in addition to Peignoir include last year’s runner-up, trainer Kathleen O’Connell’s 5-year-old mare Dream Concert; trainer Victor Barboza, Jr.’s 5-year-old mare Abundancia; America’s Vow, a 4-year-old filly trained by Tim Hamm; Easy Come Easy Go, a 6-year-old from the barn of Renaldo Richards; American Retro, a 5-year-old conditioned by Ian Wilkes; Little Jamie, a 4-year-old filly from the barn of Robert Medina; and De Regreso, a 4-year-old trained by Antonio Sano.
Around the oval. With more than $484,000 in the late Pick-5 pool, it was almost inevitable it would be hit, and it was. There were 21 bettors who correctly selected the 3-10-9-6-2 combination, each earning $20,029.45 for their efforts.
The start of the ninth race was delayed due to a starting-gate incident involving No. 6, 5-year-old mare Digital Trade. She incurred lacerations and was taken off by Equine Ambulance and her condition was being evaluated at press time. Jockey Cipriano Gil walked off unaided and appeared to be fine.
The new year has just begun, but race-callers around the country will have to go a ways to top Tampa Bay Downs’s Jason Beem’s description of the finish of today’s seventh race on the turf. Beem called the effort by winning jockey Marcos Meneses aboard 3-year-old filly Claimed in the maiden claiming event “a front-running piece of prestidigitation.” Superb.
Pedro Cotto, Jr., rode two winners today. He captured the first race on 24-1 shot Ee Yah, a 5-year-old gelding owned and trained by Osvaldo Ocasio. Cotto added the fourth with Vino Veloce, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly owned and trained by Xavier A. Rivera.
Racing continues Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs with a nine-race card beginning at 12:40 p.m. 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.
