The Silks Poker Room is conducting a Holiday Food Drive for needy local families through Oldsmar Cares, a nonprofit organization providing financial assistance, food and clothing to those in need in the Oldsmar area.
Canned items such as vegetables, fruit, meat, tuna and beans, as well as oatmeal, peanut butter, jelly, rice, pasta, pasta sauce, macaroni and cheese and soup, are in high demand.
During the next couple of weeks, there will be events on The Silks Poker Room calendar that will be tied in to the Holiday Food drive. All items collected with be donated to Oldsmar Cares and distributed to local families.
Tampa Bay Downs and The Silks Poker Room are also participating in the 2024 “Spread the Love” Kids Christmas Toy Giveaway conducted by Oldsmar Cares. Patrons are encouraged to donate new, unwrapped toys to brighten the spirits of local children.
Small trees will be placed in The Silks Poker Room and The Legends Bar with hanging ornaments featuring a QR code for the event (see attachments). Most of the donation boxes will be set up near the trees.
By scanning the QR code, gift-givers will be able to make a gift purchase on their phones through Oldsmar Cares’ Amazon Wish List.
Cash donations will also be accepted. For details, call The Silks Poker Room at (813) 855-4401, ext. 1498.
Festivus Challenge registration starts. Horse racing handicappers of all experience levels can see how their skills stack up by registering for the “10 days of Festivus Challenge” Online Handicapping Contest, which begins Friday, Dec. 6 at Tampa Bay Downs and anywhere else the Oldsmar oval races can be viewed.
There is no charge to enter. The contest runs through Dec. 24. Handicappers must register at www.festivuschallenge.com to be eligible to compete.
All contest wagers are mythical. Players are required to select one entry each day from either of two randomly selected “Challenge Races,” which are posted on the contest site by 7 a.m. each racing day. Past performances for both races will be available courtesy of Daily Racing Form.
Each individual’s progress in the contest is determined by the win-place-show payoffs on their selections, based on a $2 across-the-board wager. For example, if your selection wins and pays $12 to win, $5.60 to place and $4.40 to show, your bankroll would grow by the sum of $22.
Each entrant begins the contest with a single “lifeline,” which affords them a free pass into the next day of the contest if their selection finishes out of the money. Players can purchase additional lifelines if their choice finishes out of the money or the player fails to make a selection on a given contest day.
Two lifelines can be purchased at the time of registration for $5 each. Two additional lifelines can be purchased on Wednesday, Dec. 11 for $10 each, and a final lifeline can be bought on Wednesday, Dec. 18 for $25.
The Grand Prize winner earns $1,000 and the second-place finisher wins $500.
The deadline to register is 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. For the full set of rules and other information, visit www.festivuschallenge.com on the Internet.
Around the oval. Leading jockey Samy Camacho won both halves of today’s late daily double, giving him 11 victories over four racing days. Camacho won the eighth race on 12-1 shot Florida Flower, a 2-year-old Florida-bred filly owned and trained by Mike Dini. Camacho also won the ninth race on the turf on 1-2 shot Deuteronomy, a 3-year-old colt owned by Stuart S. Janney, III and trained by Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III.
Pablo Morales rode back-to-back winners. He captured the sixth race on Mor Spring Spirit, a 4-year-old gelding owned and trained by Ron G. Potts. Morales added the seventh race on the turf with Max’s Map, a 3-year-old gelding owned by NBS Stable and trained by Jon Arnett.
Thoroughbred racing at Tampa Bay Downs continues Saturday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:35 p.m. The feature is the second race, a $54,500, 6-furlong conditional allowance with an optional claiming price of $100,000. The six-horse field includes 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding Zydeceaux, who won the Pasco Stakes and the Florida Cup Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore Stakes as a 3-year-old, and multiple-stakes winner Thealligatorhunter, a 6-year-old gelding.
Tampa Bay Downs will hew to a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday schedule before Sundays are added to the mix on Dec. 22. A special Christmas Eve card will be conducted on Dec. 24.
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.
