Billie B Quick seeks repeat

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Billie B Quick, fresh from an upset win in the Tampa Turf Test, a $16,000 starter handicap at 1 3/8 miles, shortens up and tries optional claiming rivals on Monday in the Tampa Bay Downs feature.

Billie B Quick tops a field of eight fillies and mares in the 1o1/16-mile turf race for second-level allowance runners.

In the Turf Test, Billie B Quick raced in close attendance to the pace, then rallied through the lane to win by a length at

12-1. The victory was her fourth on the turf. She has not finished worse than third in her seven grass efforts, although she was disqualified from the purse money in one start.

Jose Martinez Jr. will ride Billie B Quick for trainer Jane Cibelli, who is 20 for 81 at the meet, a winning average of just under 25 percent. Billie B Quick, an Unbridled Jet 4-year-old, carries high weight of 122 pounds.

Tuckered won a first-level allowance race sharply in her first start of the meet, then was a lackluster 10th in her next race. She will attempt to rebound for the Tom Proctor stable, which is winning at better than 35 percent this meet.

Luis Gonzalez will ride Tuckered at 120 pounds.

Another attempting to rebound is Tiz Nik, from the barn of Joan Scott. Tiz Nik won an allowance race that was taken off the turf and moved to the main track earlier this meeting, then was blocked when she finished a fast-closing third, in an optional claimer. She has been well beaten in her two most recent starts, the Endeavour Stakes and an optional claimer on the turf.

Michael Murphy dead at 58

Michael Murphy was known to most on the backstretch here simply as "Murph."

He died last week at age 58, several days after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while working at the barn of trainer Kathleen O'Connell. Murphy was a popular figure at Tampa Bay. He always seemed to enjoy life and the horses he worked with, and he was always one of the first at the barn in the morning and the last to leave at night.