Sir Ollie gets another shot in allowance ranks
There’s part science and part art to finding certain races for certain horses when you’re maintaining multiple bases like Saffie Joseph Jr. is. A case in point arises Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs, where Joseph will run Sir Ollie in the featured fifth race at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.
Sir Ollie, with Marco Meneses riding, will break from post 4 in a field of six older horses in the lone allowance of the day. The Peter Vegso homebred has gone six races and more than 10 months since he last won a race, earning a career-best 86 Beyer Speed Figure in that win at Gulfstream.
“I don’t want to tag him just yet,” Joseph said, referring to keeping Sir Ollie out of the claiming ranks. “I’m basically trying to find an easier spot that he can be competitive in. I want to give him a chance to get through this condition before I tag him. You give up quite a bit on purses when you run at Tampa instead of Gulfstream, but it does have its benefits.”
Joseph has horses in three places – Tampa, Gulfstream, and the Palm Meadows training center – and once again plans to branch out this spring when he sends some of his better horses to Kentucky and New York. The 35-year-old Barbados native starts this week as the second-leading trainer at Gulfstream with 26 wins, two behind Todd Pletcher. He’s also 5 for 13 at the Tampa meet, which began Nov. 23.
The nominal feature offers a base purse of $25,000, with an additional $3,000 available to registered Florida-breds. Sir Ollie is the only one eligible for the bonus money.
Sir Ollie looks like he might be able to break his drought if he can revert to one of his better efforts. Third at this same level Jan. 15, he’ll have a couple of quicker horses in Thatsafactjack and Whistlewhileyoumow to his outside in this six-furlong race. Any of the three to his inside appear as if they can be competitive, too, those being the French-bred Great King and the uncoupled Jon Arnett duo of Chicks Dig Scars and Topper T.
All in all, it’s a well-matched race to anchor the nine-race Wednesday card, which starts at 12:28 p.m. Eastern. Sunshine and a high of 82 are in the local forecast.
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