Tampa Bay Downs notes: Castanon will try to chase down Allen

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Jockeys come and they go, and Ronnie Allen Jr. just keeps on winning.

The jockey colony, which has been in a constant state of flux since near the beginning of the meeting, will change yet again this week when Jesus Castanon returns to Tampa Bay Downs.

A former leading rider here, Castanon will begin taking mounts here Friday, according to agent Donald Cespedes. Cespedes was the agent for Fernando De La Cruz, who went down in a spill on Dec. 27 after having won 23 races since the meeting started Dec. 4.

Castanon, who is probably best known for his partnership with 2011 Preakness winner Shackleford, led the rider standings at Tampa in 2003-04 (87 wins) and 2004-05 (101). More recently, Castanon has had some subpar years, with just 55 wins at all tracks in both 2011 and 2012. He has been riding at Gulfstream Park for the past month and has one win at that track.

Castanon joins Daniel Centeno as another former leading rider to return to Tampa after the meeting has started, but if they have designs on the top spot in the standings it looks like they may have to get by Allen.

Allen, who has four local riding titles, posted a riding triple Sunday to forge to the top of the standings with 24 wins, and at age 50 he appears to be riding at the top of his game. Antonio Gallardo also won three races Sunday to raise his win total for the meeting to 17.

With De La Cruz sidelined for the next five weeks, the battle for the top spot should be a good one.

Distance key for Mighty Brown

Tim Ice thought the seven furlongs of the Pasco Stakes last Saturday would be perfect for Mighty Brown, and he was proved right when Mighty Brown won the meet’s first stakes for 3-year-olds by 3 1/4 lengths.

Mighty Brown made his first seven starts at one mile or 1 1/16 miles and didn’t win until Ice turned him back to six furlongs here last month. Ice, who won the 2009 Belmont Stakes with Summer Bird, said after the Pasco victory: “I thought seven furlongs suited him better than any other distance, and I also thought being outside would help him. He trained good for this one, better than I expected, and ran big.”

Dean Butler rode Mighty Brown.

In Saturday’s other stakes, Nesso won the seven-furlong Gasparilla for 3-year-old fillies after also running in a string of longer races.

Nesso had debuted at Calder but spent most of last year campaigning in Southern California. After she ran fourth in the Grade 3 Miesque in November at Hollywood Park, owner Dennis Amaty decided to bring her back to Florida.

“She raced well enough out there, but we decided to bring her home and have some fun with her,” Amaty said. “We like it here at Tampa and we knew from her first race she could handle dirt. She ran well and now we can enjoy her close to home.”

Abdiel Jaen was aboard Nesso.