King Guillermo shocks at 49-1 in Tampa Bay Derby

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Just imagine how they’ll react if they win the next Derby on their schedule.

The connections of King Guillermo launched into a celebration of the most boisterous kind when the Uncle Mo colt sped to victory Saturday in the Tampa Bay Derby, returning the second-biggest price in the 40-year history of the Tampa Bay Downs showcase while earning his way into the May 2 Kentucky Derby.

The $100.40 win mutuel was only part of the reason several dozen friends and family members of owner Victor Martinez and trainer Juan C. Avila launched into a most raucous outpouring of emotion.

Martinez, a five-time All-Star who retired in 2018 after 17 seasons in Major League Baseball, was in the thick of a celebration that followed a stunning 4 3/4-length triumph by King Guillermo, a Kentucky-bred colt whose lone prior win came in a maiden-special turf race at Gulfstream Park West in November.

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“This is absolutely something else,” said Martinez, adding that nothing in his outstanding baseball career can compare to this breakthrough triumph in racing.

Martinez named the colt for his father, who died when the boy was just 6.

“I thank God for this opportunity and putting a great horse in my hands,” said Martinez. “I always wanted to name a horse for my dad.”

With Samy Camacho riding from post 11, King Guillermo broke sharply to clear most of the field, as only 21-1 shot Relentless Dancer led him into the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile race. Leaving the half-mile pole, King Guillermo moved alongside to challenge from the outside, and they remained locked in battle, well ahead of their 10 opponents, until the upper stretch, where Relentless Dancer gave way and King Guillermo spurted away to an insurmountable lead.

The winning time was 1:42.63, less than a second behind the stakes record of 1:41.90 set last year by Tacitus.

“From the three-eighths pole I had a lot of horse, and I was worried about Chance It and Sole Volante,” said Camacho, the leading jockey at the 2018-19 Tampa meet and currently second in the local standings. “But I had a lot of confidence in him. I hope he is going to the Kentucky Derby.”

King Guillermo earned 50 qualifying points to the 146th Kentucky Derby, virtually clinching a spot in a field limited to 20. However, he is not currently Triple Crown nominated and his connections will have to put up the $6,000 late nomination fee by March 30 to make the colt eligible to compete. King Guillermo now has raced four times, finishing sixth in his September debut on the Gulfstream Park dirt prior to winning on turf at Gulf West, then finishing third behind Sole Volante in the ungraded Pulpit in late November on the Gulfstream turf in his most recent previous start.

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Sole Volante, favored at 3-2 as the last-out winner of the Sam F. Davis Stakes here four weeks beforehand, closed resolutely to be second, another 1 3/4 lengths before Texas Swing. Relentless Dancer faded to fourth, while Chance It, the 5-2 second choice, was not much of a factor when fifth.

The $2 exacta (11-7) paid $719.60, the $1 trifecta (11-7-1) returned $2,238.60, and the 10-cent superfecta (11-7-1-3) was worth $2,694.24.

Sole Volante was well back for much of the running.

“The winner just got away from us,” said Florent Geroux, who rode him for trainer Patrick Biancone. “That’s what happens when you have a deep closer. He didn’t really get stopped, but I was hoping some other horses would carry me a bit farther into it.

“But he did make a nice run, and I’m sure he finished the fastest in the race. More distance is going to be better for him. [Biancone] wants to see them finish and have a good experience, and the farther this horse is going to go, the better he is going to get.

Sole Volante earned 20 points toward the Kentucky Derby, giving him a total of 30 – typically enough to at least be on the bubble, if not actually in – after getting 10 for his Sam Davis win.

Saturday was indeed an incredible day for Avila, who earlier on the card recorded his first-ever stakes win in the United States when Trophy Chaser captured the Grade 3 Challenger. Both he and Martinez hail from Venezuela.

Avila said he won 12 stakes in his native country, and available Daily Racing Form statistics show at least two Group 1 wins. Now based at Gulfstream, he won his first race in the U.S. in 2018 and now has 41.

Martinez, 41, races in the name of Victorias Ranch, a 2,500-acre cattle farm he owns in Okeechobee, Fla. He slugged 246 home runs in a 17-year career spent entirely in the American League with Cleveland, Boston, and Detroit.

The Tampa Bay Derby, sponsored since 2016 by Lambholm South, was first run in 1981. The only Tampa Bay Derby winner to go on to capture the Kentucky Derby was Street Sense in 2007.

Ontrack attendance on a bright afternoon with temperatures in the low 60s was 10,021, well shy of the 2008 record of 12,746. All-sources handle was $13,155,021, also short of the 2018 mark of nearly $14.9 million.