Quarantine may prevent Tampa-based Crafty Collector from running in Oaks
?q=100)
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Nobody was looking forward to the $125,000 Tropical Park Oaks here Saturday more than the Tampa Bay Downs-based trainer Gerald Bennett, whose Crafty Collector figured to be among the favorites in the final Florida stakes this season in which 3-year-old fillies get to race against their own age group.
But Crafty Collector’s status for the race became questionable when Gulfstream Park announced it was putting a hold on horses shipping to and from Tampa as of Tuesday evening. The quarantine was issued by track management while awaiting test results on a sick horse at Tampa in the barn of trainer Kathleen O’Connell, who currently has horses stabled at Gulfstream as well.
“We’re having a meeting to get an update on the situation here at noon and hopefully we’ll know tomorrow morning, when the test results come back, if we will be cleared to come down there for the race on Saturday,” Bennett said by phone from Tampa late Wednesday morning.
It’s no surprise the 81-year-old Bennett, a nine-time Tampa Bay Downs training champion, is eager to send Crafty Collector back to Gulfstream Park for the Tropical Park Oaks. In her last local appearance, the daughter of Collected pulled off a stunning one-length upset in the Cellars Shiraz Stakes, winning at odds of 61-1 while earning a career-best 83 Beyer Speed Figure. Crafty Collector punctuated her performance by galloping out far in front of the field after the race.
“Obviously, we’d really like to be able to run back there Saturday because it’s her final chance to compete in a stakes against her own age group and she really seems to love that turf course at Gulfstream,” Bennett said. “She couldn’t be doing better. Number wise, her last race was her best ever. And you can see the difference in her since she broke her maiden.
“As she’s matured, she’s learned to relax and sit behind horses without the rider having to fight her, which had been the case earlier in her career.”
Bennett said if Crafty Collector is allowed to run, she will wait until the morning of the race before making the van ride south for the Tropical Park Oaks. He noted that his alternatives, should the quarantine not be lifted in time, would be to run her in either a $16,000 or $25,000 starter-allowance race later this month at Tampa or await the next stakes opportunity, which would come against older horses in January.
Crafty Collector is one of two horses Bennett has entered here Saturday, along with El Principito, who also will be among the key contenders in the seventh race – a starter/optional claimer carded at seven furlongs on the main track.
El Principito is coming off a game three-quarter-length victory over high-priced optional-claiming and allowance foes going six furlongs on Nov. 28 at Tampa, a race he won despite having to overcome a bit of a slow start and wide trip. El Principito had made his five previous starts at Gulfstream, finishing second in the Smile Sprint and fourth in the Benny the Bull Stakes during the summer.
“He’s also doing quite well at the current time and has shown big improvement since we had him gelded earlier in the year,” Bennett explained.
Track officials said they issued the quarantine on Tuesday “out of an abundance of caution” even in light of the fact only one of the horse’s handlers, and not the handler of the horse in question, had actually been on the grounds at Gulfstream Park.
Crafty Collector is one of two horses currently stabled at Tampa entered in stakes races here Saturday, along with Thundering from the barn of Derek Ryan. Thundering is scheduled to make his local debut in the $125,000 Tropical Park Derby in the finale on the 11-race program.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.