Stakes tripleheader includes Pasco, Gasparilla for 3-year-olds
Stakes action resumes Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs with three of the 10 races breaking a five-week stakes drought at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.
Seven-furlong twins for 3-year-olds, the $50,000 Pasco and $50,000 Gasparilla, will be run back-to-back midway through a Saturday program that starts at 12:14 p.m. Eastern, while the $50,000 Wayward Lass is the penultimate race on the card.
Listed purses for the Pasco and Gasparilla do not include as much as $75,000 in additional bonuses that will go solely to the winner in case he or she is a registered Florida-bred. Five of the seven colts and geldings in the Pasco are eligible for the added money, whereas Outfoxed and Strategic Bird are the only statebreds among the eight fillies in the Gasparilla.
Another spectacular day of weather is in store for horsemen and local fans. Highs are projected in the low 70s, meaning the main track most likely will be fast for all three stakes and the turf firm for races 4, 8, and 10.
Pasco Stakes
Cattin scooped up lucrative statebred bonuses with a triumph in the Dec. 4 Inaugural at six furlongs, and trainer Ralph Nicks is hoping for more of the same when the Neolithic colt makes this slight stretchout on another trip over from his Gulfstream Park base.
:: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures.
“It makes for a nice payday,” Nicks said of the extra Florida-bred incentives. “The colt has done really well since I got him back from the last race. Hopefully he’ll keep on improving.”
Cattin will break from post 5 with Samy Camacho riding. He’ll be treated for the first time with the bleeder medication Lasix (banned at Tampa for 2-year-olds), as will all the runners in the 24th Pasco.
Markhamian (post 4, Marcos Meneses) and another Atlantic Coast shipper Provocateur (post 1, Antonio Gallardo) both figure as major threats off last-out maiden victories that resulted in Beyer Speed Figures close to the 79 Cattin earned in the Inaugural. Likewise, Cyberviking (post 2, Chantal Sutherland) looms a contender with his 3-for-4 career mark, while Magical Mousse (post 7, Isaac Castillo) might prove a live longshot and adds blinkers.
Gasparilla Stakes
Both Florida-breds are the only stakes winners in the 38th Gasparilla, with Outfoxed (post 5, Camacho) sweeping the last two legs of the Florida Sire Stakes series for fillies last year, and Strategic Bird (post 8, Gallardo) boasting more recency, being unbeaten in two starts, ending with the Dec. 4 Sandpiper.
Both ship in for Hall of Fame barns from across the peninsula, with Outfoxed having worked steadily in recent weeks for Bill Mott at Payson Park and Strategic Bird having come to hand quickly for Mark Casse at Palm Meadows.
Casse was particularly happy with the way Strategic Bird held sway in defeating Devine Charger by a neck in the six-furlong Sandpiper. Devine Charger (post 2, Jesus Castanon) returns for another crack as both stretch out an extra furlong here.
Helping to round out the cast are a couple of fringe players in She Nasty (post 3, Sutherland), already a four-time winner, and Goddess of Fire (post 4, Hector Diaz Jr.) from the ever-dangerous Todd Pletcher shed row.
Five of the eight get first-time Lasix, including both favorites.
Wayward Lass Stakes
This 1 1/16-mile fixture shapes up as one of the deepest races of the afternoon. Gulfstream shippers Don’t Get Khozy (post 5, Leonel Reyes) and Allworthy (post 7, Camacho) will attract their fair share of tote action as the respective two-three finishers in the Rampart last month, with Allworthy perhaps meriting lukewarm favoritism in their rematch when looking to build on what was her first race in nearly three months.
Still, there are other options among the other seven older fillies and mares in the 38th Wayward Lass, including a pair of last-out Tampa winners, Nantucket Red (post 1, Olaf Hernandez) and Molly’s Angel (post 4, Alonso Quinonez). In addition, Striking Chrome (post 6, Fernando De La Cruz) and Serene (post 8, Rocco Bowen) both enter in solid form for locally based connections.