Inaugural, Sandpiper kick off Tampa stakes
Stakes action at the 2021-22 meet at Tampa Bay Downs gets started Saturday when the Sandpiper and Inaugural, a pair of six-furlong races for 2-year-olds, anchor a 10-race card at the Oldsmar, Fla., track amid what is expected to be perfect weather.
Strategic Bird, a romping debut winner at Gulfstream Park with a big Beyer Speed Figure, figures as a solid favorite among 10 fillies in the Sandpiper, while Cattin and Concrete Glory are among what appears to be a more closely matched group of 10 colts and geldings in the Inaugural.
Purses for both races are listed as $100,000, although $50,000 is to be shared among the top finishers, while another $50,000 goes solely to the winner if he or she is a registered Florida-bred. Four in the Sandpiper are eligible for the bonus and three in the Inaugural.
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The Sandpiper and Inaugural are respective preps for the Gasparilla and Pasco, to be run Jan. 15 at seven furlongs.
First post is 12:10 p.m. Eastern, with the Sandpiper going as race 7 at 3:10 p.m. and the Inaugural as race 9 at 4:20.
Sandpiper
Strategic Bird earned a 79 Beyer in winning a Nov. 13 maiden dash over the Gulfstream main track by 12 3/4 lengths, and that will be difficult for handicappers to overlook when the Mark Casse-trained filly leaves from post 1 under Antonio Gallardo.
“I’m not real crazy about the one-hole, honestly,” Casse said this week by phone from his Ocala, Fla., base. “But obviously she’s a talented filly, and if she can run her first race back, she ought to be tough.”
Strategic Bird, bred in Florida by the John Oxley Living Trust, is among those eligible for the added $50,000.
Among the main challengers are Devine Charger (post 2, Jesus Castanon), a sharp second in a Churchill Downs allowance three Saturdays ago for trainer Jordan Blair, and She’s So Beautiful (post 10, Samy Camacho), winner of a Florida-bred sprint stakes at Gulfstream last out for Carlos David.
Inaugural
Ralph Nicks has been grieving the death this week of his father, Morris Nicks, who mentored his son in the ways of training Thoroughbreds and many other facets of life. There would be no better tribute to his late dad than for Nicks to win the Inaugural with Cattin (post 5, Camacho), who ships across the peninsula from Gulfstream with five recent workouts after earning checks with creditable efforts in the last two races of the Florida Sire Stakes series.
Cattin is turning back from longer races, so he’ll probably have to come from off the pace to catch the likes of Concrete Glory, who’ll be setting sail from post 10 with Gallardo up. Concrete Glory has been climbing the class ladder in a big way in winning his last three starts, including an October allowance at Thistledown in which he earned a field-high 84 Beyer.
Other considerations include Optigogo, Magical Mousse, Grand Valley, and Lightening Larry.