Nova Rags, other Saturday stakes winners ready to take a step up

The four winners of the three stakes held Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs – the math is correct, given a dead heat for win in one of them – will eye loftier goals for their respective next starts, according to their connections.

The winner with perhaps the most upside in a national context was Nova Rags, whose 2 3/4-length triumph in the $50,000 Pasco marked his second win in three career starts. Trained by Bill Mott for owner-breeder Michael Shanley, the Kentucky-bred colt by Union Rags earned a 75 Beyer Speed Figure and could go next in a points qualifier toward the May 1 Kentucky Derby.

“I’m sure Bill will come up with the right spot for him if he’s thinking about the Derby,” said Shanley, a retired attorney from upstate New York. “He’s pretty good at what he does. We’ll take it one race at a time and try to enjoy it as they come.”

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Nova Rags, ridden by Samy Camacho, rallied from mid-pack to capture the seven-furlong Pasco in 1:24.55, some 30 minutes after a dead heat for win in its counterpart for 3-year-old fillies, the Gasparilla, which went in 1:24.89. In deep stretch, Adios Trippi appeared to have the Gasparilla won as the race-long front-runner, but a late rush by Special Princess found them inseparable on the wire. Both got a 70 Beyer.

“I’ve never been so glad to dead heat,” Peter Walder, the trainer of Adios Trippi, said Sunday. “At first I thought we’d gotten beat, but when I kept watching the replay, I knew it was really close. We’ll take it.”

Special Princess gave Walter Woodard his first-ever stakes victory. Woodard, 58, is a lifelong Floridian who now has 38 wins in a stop-and-start training career dating to 1998.

“I actually thought we won it outright, but we’re going to move on from it,” said Woodard. “We’ll explore our options.”

One of those options for Special Princess is the $100,000 Suncoast, a Kentucky Oaks points qualifier (10-4-2-1) on the Feb. 6 Sam F. Davis undercard at Tampa in Oldsmar, Fla.

The purse for the Gasparilla was $125,000, with the $75,000 in bonuses earmarked for Florida-breds being divided equally between the dead-heat winners.

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Walder said Adios Trippi could race next on Feb. 27 in the Grade 2 Davona Dale, a one-mile Oaks qualifier (50-20-10-5) at her home base of Gulfstream Park.

“I’d like to stretch her out, although I’m not crazy about having to go off Lasix again,” referring to how Gulfstream has banned Lasix treatment for all stakes.

Adios Trippi raced Saturday with Lasix, whereas Special Princess has never raced on Lasix in her seven-race career.

The last stakes on the “Skyway Festival” card Saturday was the $50,000 Wayward Lass, which Lucky Stride won with authority as an odds-on favorite. Lucky Stride earned an 88 Beyer in winning for the first time in five U.S. starts, all stakes, after going 8 for 11 in Puerto Rico. She could go next in the Grade 3 Royal Delta on Feb. 20 at Gulfstream, said Mike Trombetta, who trains the 5-year-old Kentucky-bred mare for Sonata Stable.

◗ Another four-day week at Tampa gets under way Wednesday at 12:42 p.m. Eastern with a nine-race card comprising maiden or claiming races. Antonio Gallardo takes a 40-38 lead over Camacho atop the jockey standings into the program, which offers a $12,495 jackpot carryover in the 20-cent Ultimate 6 (races 4-9).

Unlike most other tracks across the country during the pandemic, Tampa continues to allow ontrack spectators, with strict health protocols in effect.