Olendon will be short price to win her seasonal debut

The term “comfortably spotted” doesn’t quite do justice to Olendon’s presence in the seventh race Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.

Olendon drew the outside post in an eight-horse field of filly-and-mare turf routers eligible for a second-level allowance or entered for a $32,000 claiming tag. Suffice it to say, Olendon isn’t in for the tag. Just about one year ago she finished second in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary in France, her final overseas start before being exported to America and transferred to trainer Chad Brown. For Brown, Olendon finished fifth in the Saratoga Oaks and a close fourth in the Grade 2 Sands Point on Oct. 12, her most recent start, and she figures to break from the gate at odds considerably lower than her 8-5 morning line.

Four-year-old Olendon has been steadily breezing for Brown at Palm Meadows, and the multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer obviously is exceedingly skilled at bringing horses back from long layoffs – especially when they likely overmatch their competition. Brown has started 17 horses this Tampa meet and 14 have finished third or better, and barring bad luck, anything less than a win from Olendon would be somewhat surprising.

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Flor de la Mar looks like the second choice. The one-time Bob Baffert trainee, who finished second in the 2019 Santa Anita Oaks, now resides in Eoin Harty’s barn, and in her turf debut April 3 at Tampa, she broke from an outside post and managed a clear second in a race at this class level. Flor de la Mar was solidly beaten by Summering, whose résumé is significantly less impressive than Olendon’s.

Bramble Queen, 15-1 on the morning line, would have a chance at an upset if she could produce one of her better performances from 2019. But while Bramble Queen’s last-start flop can be linked to her race being rained from turf to dirt, she was so flat racing on turf in her 2020 debut that one wonders if she’s lost her zeal for racing.

The highest-class fare on Saturday’s menu is an open $30,000 handicap, which was slotted as race 2, presumably because it drew only six entrants. Carded at one mile and 40 yards on dirt, this race should have I’m a G Six as a defined favorite despite the fact he’s only the co-highweight, at 118 pounds, with Optic Way. I’m a G Six finished second in his most recent start at odds-on, beating third-place Optic Way by more than two lengths. Taking a wide-angle view of their form, neither horse looks especially reliable at a short price, though with only four others, including no-hoper Fog Warning, the race presents minimal alternatives.