Fast Flying Rumor earns record Beyer for Turf Dash victory

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Anyone watching Fast Flying Rumor rip through sizzling fractions in the $90,000 Turf Dash last Saturday could see that the horse was really moving, but according to the numbers, it was perhaps the finest performance at Tampa Bay Downs in the past quarter of a century.

Fast Flying Rumor scored a 108 Beyer Speed Figure for his front-running, 4 3/4-length score in the Turf Dash, which track officials believe is the highest mark achieved here since Beyer figures were introduced in 1991. Cassydora had scored a 105 for winning the 2007 Hillsborough Stakes on the same card that Street Sense scored a 102 Beyer in winning the Tampa Bay Derby.

With Ronnie Allen Jr. aboard Saturday, Fast Flying Rumor led a field of 10 through a quarter-mile in 21.03 seconds and a half-mile in 43.72. Fast Flying Rumor ($24.80) had a 1 1/2-length lead at the head of the lane and drew off, stopping the clock for five furlongs on firm turf in 55.06 seconds. The final time was 0.43 seconds off the course record set in last year’s Turf Dash by Bold Thunder, and Allen said that had he really pushed Fast Flying Rumor, he might have broken the record.

“He broke good, and then he relaxed very nice for me,” Allen said. “Around the turn, I gave him a breather, and then when I smooched to him at the top of the stretch, he just rebroke. I knew I had it won.”

Power Alert, the winner of the Grade 3 Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs last May, was second as the 3-2 favorite in the Turf Dash while making his first start since July.

The Turf Dash was the second stakes win for Fast Flying Rumor, a 4-year-old, gelded son of West Acre trained by Gerald Bennett and owned by the Winning Stables of his wife, Mary, and Matt Ferris’s Midnight Rider LLC. He also won the $56,400 Select Stakes on the Monmouth Park grass in June.

In between those stakes wins, Fast Flying Rumor had a case of the thumps, or spasms of the diaphragm similar to hiccups that are usually caused by dehydration and low levels of electrolytes. He finished off the board in three consecutive races, prompting Gerald Bennett to give him a rest.

Fast Flying Rumor returned Dec. 11 to capture the optional $100,000 claiming prep for the Turf Dash by 1 1/2 lengths with an 87 Beyer, and he looked like he was sitting on a big race after turning in a bullet workout here Dec. 23, going four furlongs in 48.20 seconds.

“His electrolytes got out of whack, so we just stopped on him and gave him some time, and it paid off,” Bennett said. “He’s got natural speed. He’s not the kind that you have to ask him. He does it on his own. He’s maturing and getting older, too, and he’s getting a lot more confidence in himself.”

Fast Flying Rumor has five wins and four runner-up finishes in 14 career starts and has earned $180,795. Bennett said he doesn’t have a next race picked out for the horse.