Liam's Lucky Charm fresh for shot at Pasco Stakes

Stakes action resumes Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs with a pair of 3-year-old races anchoring a 10-race card.

The Pasco and Gasparilla are the seven-furlong twins that highlight a program starting at 12:47 p.m. Eastern. They’ll be accompanied by the Wayward Lass, a two-turn race for fillies and mares, as the first stakes at the Oldsmar, Fla., track since a couple of statebred races were run Dec. 14.

Indeed, the best is still ahead at the 2019-20 Tampa meet, with Feb. 8 (Sam F. Davis) and March 7 (Tampa Bay Derby) being the most noteworthy future dates.

Purses for each of the three Saturday stakes start at $50,000, with an additional $75,000 available to the winner of the Pasco and Gasparilla if he or she is a registered Florida-bred. Four starters in each of those races qualify as such.

Pasco (race 3)

One of the Florida-breds in this field of seven is one of the main contenders – Liam’s Lucky Charm, a Stonehedge homebred who will break from post 1 when racing with blinkers for the first time and making his first start in nearly four months.

“He ran hard through every leg of the Sire Stakes series [at Gulfstream Park last year], and you need a little freshening at some point,” trainer Ralph Nicks said. “He’s still a big kid and has some growing up to do, so hopefully the blinkers will help him focus more. The one-hole isn’t the best, but he ought to be coming from off the pace, so it shouldn’t matter much.”

Liam’s Lucky Charm earned a 90 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest in this lineup, in winning the middle leg of the Florida Sire Stakes series, the seven-furlong Affirmed on Aug. 31. His stalking style is likely to find him chasing Golden Candy and My Man Flintstone through the opening furlongs, with No Getting Over Me and Albert Park being the other contenders looking to pounce.

Gasparilla (race 9)

A field of 11 fillies makes for the best race of the day, as optimism abounds from all corners. None is yet an open stakes winner, but two of the Florida-breds – Two Sixty and Ceci Valentina – have won restricted stakes, while most of the others can boast good-looking maiden wins in making this a race very much worth tabbing.

Typifying that upside is Mo City, whose only start resulted in a 5 1/4-length romp in a Dec. 7 maiden special at Tampa. The daughter of Uncle Mo will break from post 10.

“She’s a very talented filly stepping into tough company quickly,” trainer Mike Stidham said. “We’ll see if she’s ready for the class raise, right? We’ve liked her a lot from early on.”

Others with sharp maiden scores to their credit are We the Clouds, Campy Cash, Swiss Skydiver, Veruca, Palace Miss, and Gerri B.

Wayward Lass (race 7)

Tweeting and Jehozacat bring the strongest credentials to the 1 1/16-mile race, which drew a field of seven. Both are experienced mares making their first start of the Tampa meet after spending much of 2019 in the Mid-Atlantic. Jehozacat most recently was second when going turf to dirt in the Thirty Eight Go Go at Laurel Park and sports the best Beyer Speed Figures, although fringe players such as Classic Fit and All Good Times, along with Tweeting, are certainly capable of a minor upset.