With an influx of new money and new horsemen and the same old reliable turf course, Tampa Bay Downs is ready to kick off its 92-day meet Wednesday. Tampa was awarded $5.5 million for purses as part of a larger financial package approved for Florida’s racing program last May. Maiden purses jump from $27,000 to $32,000 while higher-level allowance races also are getting significant increases with even more money for Florida-breds. “The purses have gone up, we seem to have gotten a lot of interest,” said Allison DeLuca, Tampa’s director of racing/racing secretary. “We’re looking forward to a good meet.” Among those stabling at Tampa this year is Jamie Ness, who, from 2006-15 was the leading trainer at the track. The last time he stabled at Tampa was the 2016-17 meet before he ventured north where he has set up a foothold in the Mid-Atlantic region. “Too many horses,” Ness said when asked why he has returned to Tampa. “Back in the same barn as before. I kind of cut my teeth here for years. Tampa treated me good. We’re glad to be back.” Ness, who said Monday he has thus far filled 14 of his 30 allotted stalls at Tampa, has full barns at Parx, Laurel Park, and Fair Hill. He said he chose Tampa over Oaklawn Park, due, in part, to his familiarity with the Oldsmar track. :: DRF's Black Friday Sale: Get 20% off (almost) everything in the DRF Shop. Code: BF2023 “Winning the title is not the goal, that’s for sure,” Ness said from Tampa. “We’re bringing some cheaper horses, turf horses, layoff horses; we always run a competitive stable that’s for sure. We’re on top at Parx and Laurel and that’s where I’d like to stay. What happens down here, happens down here.” Ness has one starter on Wednesday’s opening-day card, Lady Prospect, in a maiden $25,000 claimer that goes as race 6. Ness claimed the horse for $45,000 at Delaware Park, and the horse ran second in a restricted maiden special on Nov. 3. “We probably paid a little too much for her, it looks like a good spot,” Ness said. “This is what she’s worth.” Ness mentioned that he may bring Repo Rocks to Tampa to get his 2024 campaign started. Repo Rocks, who won the Grade 3 Toboggan at Aqueduct and Grade 3 Westchester at Belmont Park with triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures earlier in the year, has not raced since finishing seventh behind Cody’s Wish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan on June 10. Ness said Repo Rocks had “minor, nagging issues” and was given a break. The horse is about to resume light training at a farm in New York, according to Ness. “Maybe another reason I came to Tampa was to train him here in the better weather and a nice surface and get him ready here, maybe get a start here in the spring and try to come back [north] with a fresh horse,” Ness said. Mac Robertson, who maintains a string at Oaklawn Park in the winter, has taken 25 stalls at Tampa, sending mostly horses he had during the summer/fall at Delaware where he won 17 races from 68 starters. “I hear nothing but good things about the racing surface and management,” Robertson said. “We had a good Delaware Park meet, a lot of those horses went down there and hopefully we keep the ball rolling.” Robertson has three entered on the opening-day program. William Morey and Wayne Potts are others with horses at Tampa for the winter. The new purse structure will benefit the longtime Tampa stalwarts too, including Gerald Bennett, who has won the last eight trainers’ titles and Kathleen O’Connell, a regular among the top five. Some new riders will be at Tampa this year, including Carol Cedeno who won five Delaware riding titles from 2015-20 and has previously ridden at Tampa, Jorge A. Vargas, Carlos Marquez, and Jeremy Rose. Mychel Sanchez, the leading rider at Parx, will ride Tampa on the weekends, according to his agent, Scott Silver. Tampa starts out racing three days week – Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays – before adding Sundays beginning Dec. 24. Tampa will offer 25 stakes worth $3.46 million topped by the Grade 2, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby on March 9 and the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis on Feb. 10. Both are qualifying-points races for 3-year-olds on the road to the Kentucky Derby. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. A pair of Grade 3, $175,000 turf stakes at 1 1/16 miles – the Tampa Bay for males and the Endeavour for females – will be offered Feb. 3. Tampa’s turf course has often been praised by horsemen and utilized by many big names, including Chad Brown, Graham Motion, Christophe Clement, Mark Casse, and Shug McGaughey to get their horses’ campaigns under way. First post for Wednesday’s opening-day card is 12:38 p.m. The feature is a first-level allowance/optional $16,000 claimer. The seven-time winner Yes I’m a Beast, trained by Rohan Crichton, is coming off a runner-up finish for $25,000 claiming on Nov. 9. Bring Theband Home, trained by Casse, returns to the races off a nine-month layoff and has been gelded since his last start, an eighth-place finish in a Florida-bred allowance at Gulfstream Park. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.