3-year-old stakes series launches with Gasparilla, Pasco
Stakes action returns to Tampa Bay Downs following a five-week hiatus, with the three-stakes Skyway Festival on Saturday at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.
A pair of seven-furlong races for 3-year-olds, the Gasparilla and Pasco, are the anchors of an 11-race program that also includes the Wayward Lass for fillies and mares. The card starts at 12:10 p.m. Eastern.
Tampa is billing the Gasparilla, for fillies, and Pasco, for 3-year-olds, as $125,000 races, but in reality they are funded in this complicated way: $50,000 in open money; another $50,000 to the winner if he or she is a qualified Florida-bred; and another $25,000 available to qualified Florida-breds, to be distributed according to finishing position. Only two starters in the Gasparilla and two in the Pasco are eligible for bonus payouts.
The Skyway Festival leads off the annual series of 3-year-old stakes at Tampa. The schedule peaks with a pair of Kentucky Derby points events, the Feb. 9 Sam F. Davis and the March 9 Tampa Bay Derby, both 1 1/16-mile races.
Here’s a rundown of the Saturday stakes:
Gasparilla
A field of 11 fillies makes for arguably the best betting race of the entire card, and the odds would seem to favor a horse with Kentucky form winding up in the winner’s circle.
Into the South and Gold Credit, both coming off creditable efforts in stakes at the Churchill Downs fall meet for trainer Ignacio Correas, help form a core of lukewarm favorites in the Gasparilla, along with Into Trouble for trainer Ben Colebrook and Molto Bella for trainer Ian Wilkes.
Into the South won a maiden race at Saratoga in August and is coming off a third, beaten a head for second, behind runaway winner Dunph in the Spendthrift Juvenile Stallion Stakes. Gold Credit, a debut winner at Keeneland in October, hasn’t raced since finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Golden Rod.
“Both of my fillies are training very well, although I’m not crazy about running them against each other,” Correas said. “They both broke their maidens at major tracks. We are hoping for big years from both of them, and this is a good place to start.”
Into Trouble won the Arlington-Washington Lassie before faltering in the Grade 1 Alcibiades in October. Colebrook said the two turns of the 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades “might’ve been an issue” in her ninth-place finish. Into Trouble has had three local breezes amid a regrouping.
“We’ve always held her in high regard,” Colebrook said.
Molto Bella was second in the Rags to Riches at Churchill before finishing a distant fourth at 3-1 in the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct in early December.
Among those lacking Kentucky form, Twixt and Shout and Another Time rate the best chances. Twixt and Shout is a local maiden winner going two turns for Godolphin and trainer Eoin Harty. Woodbine shipper Another Time won a maiden race with an 83 Beyer Speed Figure in November and an optional-claiming sprint in December.
The Gasparilla is race 9 with a post time of 4:10 p.m.
Pasco
There’s an immovable-object-versus-irresistible-force element to the Pasco, as three of the seven starters are unbeaten – and two others are stakes winners.
A Florida-bred colt named Win Win Win doesn’t fall under either category, and yet he could wind up favored.
“If we’re not the favorite, we shouldn’t be any worse than second choice,” said Mike Trombetta, trainer of Win Win Win.
Win Win Win’s lone defeat in three starts came last month when he finished second despite being away tardily in a sprint stakes at Laurel Park. Still, he earned an 86 Beyer.
“The track was greasy and he took a step backward right when they opened the gates,” Trombetta said. “All things considered, he ran really well again. I never pegged this guy as being fast as he is, having sprinter’s speed, but he’s been a real nice surprise. We’ve got a lot of options with him beyond this race.”
The three unbeatens are Overdeliver, trained by Todd Pletcher; Zenden, whose 2-for-2 mark includes a victory in the Buffalo Man last month at his Gulfstream Park base; and Cave Run, a Godolphin homebred who earned an 86 Beyer in a flashy local debut last month.
The other two stakes winners are Jackson, who won the Juvenile Sprint at Gulfstream Park West in November, and Gladiator King, an 8-1 winner of the Dec. 15 Inaugural at Tampa.
The Pasco is race 7 with a post time of 3:10.
Wayward Lass
Carded early in the day because of its six-horse field, this $50,000 race at 1 1/16 miles will have Tapa Tapa Tapa as a clear-cut favorite off a third-place finish last month in the Grade 3 Rampart at Gulfstream. The Rampart was her first race in eight months. Trained by Tim Hamm, the 5-year-old gray mare sports superior back form, including a 102 Beyer in a Tampa allowance romp and a runner-up finish at 2-5 in the 2018 Wayward Lass. Antonio Gallardo has the call.
The opposition includes Almond Roca, a two-time stakes winner over the Tampa surface; Shanghai Starlet, who was cross-entered for Saturday by Todd Pletcher in a Sunshine Millions race at Gulfstream; and the Puerto Rican star Pure Lemon, whose remarkable 21-for-34 career record has netted $275,157 in earnings.
The Wayward Lass is race 3 with a post time of 1:10.
