With his impressive victory in today’s first race at Tampa Bay Downs, 5-year-old Florida-bred gelding Uncashed is already in the running to be one of horse racing’s best comeback stories of 2025.
Sent to the lead at the outset of the 6-furlong race by jockey Pablo Morales, Uncashed put on a show, finishing 3 lengths to the good of Thealligatorhunter despite demanding fractions of 21.88 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 44.37 for the half. The final time of 1:09.18 in the $54,500 allowance/optional claiming event was .51 seconds off It’s Me Mom’s 13-year-old track record.
More Love rallied to finish third.
More on Uncashed in a moment. No bettor hit the late Pick-5 today, creating a carryover pool of $60,144 into Sunday’s late Pick-5. Four out of five correct paid $556.85. The late Pick-5 will begin with the fifth race.
Meanwhile, Uncashed’s victory was the sixth in 10 career starts for the son of Uncaptured-Charlie B, by War Chant. Uncashed is owned by the Patricia’s Hope, LLC concern of Vince and Patricia Foglia and trained by Larry Rivelli.
Uncashed, who won the 2023 Quick Call Stakes Presented by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation at Saratoga to cap a four-race winning streak, was making his second start since being sidelined more than a year. He’d finished second on Dec. 11 in a 5-furlong race at Delta Downs in Louisiana.
As a Florida-bred, Uncashed earned $34,750 from the purse. The 3-2 favorite, he was the only one of the six entrants not eligible to be claimed for the $100,000 optional price tag.
“He had a problem with a splint bone, and we had him with (Dr.) Jean White in Ocala for rehab,” Rivelli said. “They couldn’t get a race to go at Fair Grounds, and this race came up perfect for him. I told Pablo to make the lead because no one else in the race had speed like he does.”
For the most part, Morales said he was along for the ride.
“He’s a free-running horse, so I just sent him away from there and let him do his thing,” Morales said. “I just didn’t want to get in his way. I knew he was talented, so it was just a matter of if he got a little late (tired) at the end, but he didn’t.”
Uncashed is based at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, but given his performance today in his first-ever start at the Oldsmar oval, it would be no surprise to see him return for the $125,000, 6-furlong Pelican Stakes here on Feb. 8.
Ferrer keeps winning. If Thoroughbred racing had a program for jockeys similar to golf’s PGA Tour Champions circuit for players 50 and older, 60-year-old Jose Ferrer would be on the verge of retiring to a lifestyle of playing golf and lounging around the swimming pool (circumstances his family and friends know wouldn’t suit him, of course.)
Ferrer, who was honored today as the Mother’s Restaurant Jockey of the Month in a winner’s-circle ceremony after the seventh race, has ridden 905 of his 4,788 career winner since turning 50 in 2014. Currently third in the Oldsmar standings with 13 winners, Ferrer has won five times over the last three racing days, including today’s third race on the turf aboard 3-year-old filly Dynamic Actress for owner Ken Kachel and trainer Richard J. Hendriks.
The 2018 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award winner astounded the racing community in 2018 by winning the title at Monmouth Park with 95 winners. He was runner-up at Tampa Bay Downs two seasons ago to Samy Camacho.
If you want to know what he’ll do for an encore, come out and see for yourself. If he keeps turning the clock back in this fashion, the Dallas Cowboys might become a powerhouse again.
Around the oval. In today’s seventh race, the $53,000 Lambholm South Race of the Week for newly-turned 3-year-olds, Enterdadragon exploded through an opening in deep stretch under jockey Samy Camacho and surged to a 2 ¼-length victory from Lordly. The victory was the second in seven career starts for the winner, who paid $5.80 to win as the 19-10 favorite in the nine-horse field.
Enterdadragon is a gelding owned by Chester Bishop, Anthony Hinkson, Alvin Rampaul, PK Ventures and Grand Cay Breeders and Racing Company and trained by Jose Francisco D’Angelo.
Thoroughbred racing continues Sunday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:33 p.m. Next Saturday, Jan. 11, is Skyway Festival Day, with three stakes races featured: the $150,000, 7-furlong Pasco Stakes for 3-year-olds, the $150,000, 7-furlong Gasparilla Stakes for 3-year-old fillies and the $100,000, mile-and-a-sixteenth Wayward Lass Stakes for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward.
The Pasco is the major Tampa Bay Downs prep for the Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes – a “Road to the Kentucky Derby” prep race – while the Gasparilla is a stepping stone to the $150,000 Suncoast Stakes. Both the Sam F. Davis and the Suncoast are on Feb. 8.
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.
