Tampa Bay Downs: Cool Cowboy will have to be caught in Inaugural Stakes

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Cool Cowboy, a 2-year-old colt who blazed six furlongs in 1:08.78 at Hawthorne last time out while winning a first-level optional claimer, tops a field of eight juvenile sprinters in Saturday’s $100,000 Inaugural Stakes. Nine of the 10 races on the Tampa card are for juveniles, including the co-featured $100,000 Sandpiper for fillies.

Trained by Dale Bennett, Cool Cowboy is 2 for 4. He finished second in his debut at Arlington Park to My Crafty Friend, who came back to win a stakes for Indiana-breds in his next start. Cool Cowboy won an Arlington maiden race in his second start, romping by more than 10 lengths and earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.

After a troubled fourth-place finish at Keeneland, Cool Cowboy returned to Chicago and led throughout to win by three lengths at Hawthorne.

“He’s very fast and is still really learning what it’s all about,” Bennett said. “He doesn’t do a lot of things wrong, and the only really bad race on his PPs wasn’t his fault. In the race at Keeneland, he broke a tad slow, then the jock rushed him up inside, and he was in tight quarters for a long time.

“As to how far he’ll go, at this point, I’m thinking he may well be solid up to a mile.”

Bennett tuned up Cool Cowboy last Sunday with a three-furlong blowout in 35.40 seconds.

“He went the half in 47 and change and galloped out in 1:11 and looked like he handled the track all right,” Bennett said.

The six-furlong Inaugural is an interesting affair since six of the eight entrants are last-out winners. Interestingly, a horse trained by Bennett’s father, Gerald Bennett, might pose the biggest challenge to Cool Cowboy. The elder Bennett will send out Exquisite Monarch, a Monarchos colt who won his debut by more than eight lengths at Thistledown.

Pallium Prize has made three of his last four starts in stakes company, including a second-place finish in the $80,000 Birdonthewire Stakes at Calder Race Course and a fourth last time out against statebreds in the $125,000 Juvenile Sprint at Gulfstream Park.

◗ In the Sandpiper, the undefeated Enquete from the Todd Pletcher barn is expected to be a strong favorite over six rivals. A popular first-out winner at Saratoga this summer, Enquete moved to Gulfstream Park, where she overcame a slow start to defeat allowance rivals.

Secret Kitten won her first three races at Calder, including the Catcharisingstar and Cassidy stakes, before finishing third behind runaway winner Puddifoot in the $125,000 Juvenile Fillies Stakes for Florida-breds.